rso THE RIFLE AND HOUND IN CEYLON, chap. vm. 



In narrating long shots that I have made, I re- 

 count them as bright moments in the hours of sport ; 

 they are the exceptions and not the rule. I consider 

 a man a first-rate shot who can always bag his deer 

 standing at eighty yards, or running at fifty. Hitting 

 and bagging are widely different. If a man can 

 always bag at the distance that I have named he will 

 constantly hit, and frequently bag, at extraordinary 

 ranges, as there is no doubt of his shooting, and, when 

 he misses, the ball has whizzed somewhere very close 

 to the object ; the chances are, therefore, in favour of 

 the rifle. 



The deer differ in character in various parts of 

 Ceylon. In some. places where they are rarely dis- 

 turbed they can be approached to within thirty or 

 forty paces, in which case a very moderate shot can 

 easily kill them ; but it is better sport when they are 

 moderately wild. The greatest number of deer that 

 I ever saw was. in the south-eastern part of Ceylon, 

 in the neighbourhood of Pontane and Yalle. The 

 whole of this country is almost uninhabited, and 

 accordingly undisturbed. Yalle is the nearest town 

 of importance, from which a good road, lined on either 

 side with cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees, extends 

 as far as Tangalle, fifty miles. A few miles beyond 

 this village the wild country begins, and Hambantotte 

 is the next station, nearly ninety miles from Yalle. 

 The country around Hambantotte is absolutely fright- 



