163 The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 



and Killbuck. After a night much disturbed by this 

 constant quarreling, we unkenneled the hounds just as 

 the first gray streak of dawn spread above Totapella 

 peak. 



The mist was hanging heavily on the lower parts of 

 the plain like a thick snowbank, although the sky was 

 beautifully clear above, in which a few pale stars still 

 glimmered. Long lines of fog were slowly drifting 

 along the bottoms of the valleys, dispelled by a light 

 breeze ; and day fast advancing bid fair for sport ; a 

 heavy dew lay upon the grass ; and we stood for some 

 moments in uncertainty as to the first point of our ex- 

 tensive hunting-grounds that we should beat. There 

 were fresh tracks of elk close to our " lodge," who had 

 been surveying our new settlement during the night. 

 Crossing the river by wading waist-deep, we skirted 

 along the banks, winding through a narrow valley with 

 grassy hills capped with forest upon either side. Our 

 object in doing this was to seek for tracks where the 

 elk had come down to drink during the night, as we 

 knew that the tracks would then lead to the jungle 

 upon either side the river. We had strolled quietly 

 along for about half a mile when the loud bark of an 

 elk was suddenly heard in the jungle upon the opposite 

 hills. In a moment the hounds dashed across the river 

 toward the well-known sound, and entered the jungle 

 at full speed. Judging the direction which the elk 

 would most probably take when found, I ran along the 

 bank of the river, down stream, for a quarter of a mile, 

 toward a jungle through which the river flowed previous 

 to its descent into the lower plains, and I waited upon 

 a steep grassy hill, about a hundred feet above the 

 river's bed. From this spot I had a fine view of the 



