146 THE RIFLE AND HOUND IN CEYLON, chap, vii, 



the gun-bearer to drag him across by force. This he 

 accordingly did, and the dog swam with frantic exer- 

 tions across the river, and managed to disengage his 

 head from the rope. The moment that he arrived on 

 terra firma he rushed up a steep bank and looked at- 

 tentively down into the water beneath. 



We now gave him credit for his sagacity in refus- 

 ing to cross the dangerous passage. The reeds bowed 

 down to the right and left as a huge crocodile of about 

 eighteen feet in length moved slowly from his shallow 

 bed into a deep hole. The dog turned to the right- 

 about, and went off as fast as his legs would carry him. 

 No calling or whistling would induce him to return, 

 and I never saw him again. How he knew that a 

 crocodile was in the stream I cannot imagine. He 

 must have had a narrow escape at some former time, 

 which was a lesson that he seemed determined to 

 profit by. 



Shortly after the disappearance of the dog, 1 sepa- 

 rated from my companion and took a different line of 

 country. Large plains, with thorny jungles and bushes 

 of the long cockspur thorn interspersed, formed the 

 character of the ground. This place literally swarmed 

 with peafowl, partridges, and deer. I killed another 

 peacock, and the shot disturbed a herd of about sixty 

 deer, who bounded over the plain till out of sight. I 

 tracked up this herd for nearly a mile, when I observed 

 them behind a large bush ; some were lying down and 



