c88 THE RIFLE AND HOUND IN CEYLON, chap. viii. 



ing without, the wind was howling in fitful gusts, and 

 neither moon nor stars relieved the pitchy darkness of 

 the night, when the conversation naturally turned 

 to the lost dogs. What a night for the poor brutes 

 to be exposed to, roaming about the wet jungles 

 without a chance of return ! 



A sudden knock at the door arrested our attention ; 

 it opened. Two natives stood there, dripping with 

 wet and shivering with cold. One had in his hand 

 an elk's head, much gnawed ; the other man, to my 

 delight, led the three lost dogs. They had run their 

 elk down, and were found by the side of a rocky river 

 several miles distant — the two dogs asleep in a cave, 

 and the bitch was gnawing the remains of the half- 

 consumed animal. The two men who had found them 

 were soon squatted before a comfortable fire, with a 

 good feed of curry and rice, and their skins full of 

 brandy. 



Although the elk are so numerous at the Horton 

 Plains, the sport at length becomes monotonous from 

 the very large proportion of the does. The usual ratio 

 in which they were killed was one buck to eight does. 

 I cannot at all account for this small proportion of 

 bucks in this particular spot. At Newera Ellia they 

 are as two or three compared with the does. The 

 following extract of deaths, taken from my game-book 

 during three months of the year, will give a tolerably 

 accurate idea of the number killed : — 



