I7« THE RIFLE AND HOUND IN CEYLON, chap. viii. 



From the plain now described about fifteen others 

 diverge, each springing from the parent plain, and 

 increasing in extent as they proceed ; these are con- 

 nected more or less by narrow valleys, and deep 

 ravines. Through the greater portion of these plains, 

 the river winds its wild course. In the first a mere 

 brook, it rapidly increases as it traverses the lower 

 portions of every valley, until it attains a width of 

 twenty or thirty yards, within a mile of the spot where 

 it is first discernible as a stream. Every plain in suc- 

 cession being lower than the first, the course of the 

 river is extremely irregular ; now a maze of tortuous 

 winding, then a broad, still stream, bounded by grassy 

 undulations ; now rushing wildly through a hundred 

 channels formed by obtruding rocks, then in a still, 

 deep pool, gathering itself together for a mad leap 

 over a yawning precipice, and roaring at a hundred 

 feet beneath, it settles in the lower plain in a pool of 

 unknown depth ; and once more it murmurs through 

 another valley. 



In the large pools formed by the sudden turns in 

 the river, the elk generally takes his last determined 

 stand, and he sometimes keeps dogs and men at bay 

 for a couple of hours. These pools are generally about 

 sixty yards across, very deep in some parts, with a 

 large shallow sandbank in the centre, formed by the 

 eddy of the river. 



We built a hunting bivouac in a snug corner of the 



