A Jungle Trip. 269 



rakan ; but as they appeared to be composed of two 

 , parts of sand, one of dirt and one of grain, I preferred 

 a prolonged abstinence to such filth^ The abject pov- 

 erty of the whole of this country is beyond description. 

 Our coolies arrived at eight A. M., faint and tired ; 

 they no longer turned up their noses at korrakan, as 

 they did at Monampitya, but they filled themselves 

 almost to bursting. 



I started off V. B.'s coolies after him, also eight men 

 whose loads had been consumed, and, with a diminished 

 party, we started for Bibille, which the natives assured 

 us was only nineteen miles from this spot. For once, 

 they were about correct in their ideas of distance. The 

 beautiful park country commenced about four miles 

 from Curhellulai, and, after a lovely ride through this 

 scenery for sixteen miles, we arrived at the luxurious 

 and pretty villag'e of Bibille, which had so often been 

 my quarters. 



We had ridden a hundred and forty miles from Minne- 

 ria, through a country abounding with game of all kinds, 

 sixty miles of which had never been shot over, and yet 

 the whole bag in this lovely country consisted of only 

 three elephants. So much for hurrying through our 

 ground. If we had remained for a week at the foot 

 of the Gunner's Coin, we could have obtained supplies 

 of all kinds from Doolana, and we should have enjoyed 

 excellent sport through the whole country. Our total 

 bag was now wretchedly small, considering the quan- 

 tity of ground that we had passed over. We had killed 

 nine elephants and two deer. V. Baker had a miser- 

 able time of it, having only killed two elephants when 

 he was obliged to return. The trip might, in fact, be 

 said to commence from Bibille. 

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