262 The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 



at which our coolies turned up their noses when I ad' 

 vised them to lay in a stock before starting. 



There was no time to be lost, and we determined to 

 push on as fast as the coolies could follow, as they had 

 only two days' provisions ; we had precisely the same, 

 and those could not be days of feasting. We were, in 

 fact, like sailors going to sea with a ship only half vic- 

 tualed ; and, as we followed our little guide, and lost 

 sight of the village behind us, I foresaw that our stom- 

 achs would suffer unless game was plentiful on the path. 



We passed through beautiful open country for about 

 eight miles, during which we saw several herds of deer ; 

 but we could not get a shot. At length we pitched the 

 tent, at four o'clock p. M., at the foot of " Gunner's 

 Coin," a solitary rocky mountain of about two thousand 

 feet in height, which rises precipitously from the level 

 country. We then divided into two parties W. and 

 P., and V. B. and I. We strolled off with our guns in 

 different directions. 



The country was perfectly level, being a succession 

 of glades of fine low grass divided into a thousand 

 natural paddocks by belts of jungle. 



We were afraid to stroll more than a mile from the 

 tent, lest we should lose our way ; and we took a good 

 survey of the most prominent points of the mountain, 

 that we might know our direction by their position. 



After an hour's walk, and just as the sun was setting, 

 a sudden crash in a jungle a few yards from us brought 

 the rifles upon full cock. The next moment, out came 

 an elephant's head, and I knocked him over by a front 

 shot. He had held his head in such a peculiar posi- 

 tion that a ball could not reach the brain, and he im- 

 mediately recovered himself, and, wheeling suddenly 



