208 THE IMAGE OF WAR 



IV. ELK-HUNTING IN THE MOUNTAINS OF CEYLON. 



I naturally feel a diffidence in writing of this 

 branch of Ceylon sport, as it has been so fully de- 

 scribed by that best of sporting writers, Sir Samuel 

 Baker. However, as the Rijie and Hound in 

 Ceylon has now been written many years, I may be 

 allowed to devote a few pages to this most fascinat- 

 ing sport, especially as my day in Ceylon was long 

 after that of the famous trio ^ of brothers, all, alas ! 

 now long dead. 



Elk-hunting in Ceylon is nearly always carried out 

 on foot. Of late years it has been the fashion for 

 several of the masters of crack packs to form a camp 

 for hunting purposes in the Elk Plains or the Horton 

 Plains, where hounds can sometimes be followed on 

 horseback ; but this is only for a week or so in the 

 year. The sambar frequent the thick jungles, which 

 are interspersed between the coffee estates, and commit 

 mighty ravages in the fields of guinea-grass, which 

 are grown for the benefit of the planters' horses and 

 cattle. When they become too great a nuisance a 

 drive is organised, and some are shot and the others 

 dispersed. But if it is a district where there is a 

 pack of hounds they afford finer sport still. Most 

 districts possess hounds of some sort. Many of the 

 packs are of the scratch variety, consisting of hounds 

 crossed with the native pariah dog, terriers, &c. With 

 such packs seizers are generally used. These are 

 Scotch deer-hounds, or kangaroo or Bampur hounds. 

 The pack is then used to drive the deer to the open, 



1 Samuel, Valentine, and John Baker. 



