GAME IN CEYLON FIFTY YEARS AGO. IOI 



are therefore compelled to keep for the most part on the 

 verge of the open country, and in the vicinity of water, 

 where the phytophagous tribes find abundance of food, and 

 the carnivorous congregate, attracted by the resort of the 

 others." * 



Most quadrupeds which are regular denizens of the 

 forest are therefore not grass-feeders, but browsers, 

 the twigs and foliage of trees forming their principal 

 food. Those that are not, must keep near grass-land. 



These remarks of Sir J. Emerson Tennent on the 

 forests of Ceylon may therefore be held to be applic- 

 able to animals inhabiting great forests everywhere: 

 sport is almost always confined mostly to the margins 

 of the woods, or to the open spaces within them, and 

 not to the densely timbered portions where game even 

 when close to the hunter can seldom be caught sight 

 of. The late Sir Samuel Baker, for instance, says 



" In travelling through Ceylon, the remark is often made 

 by the tourist that he sees so little game and it is a well- 

 known fact that a hundred miles of the wildest country may 

 be traversed without seeing a single head of game." t 



Yet as we know, Ceylon, at the time when Sir Samuel 

 Baker lived there (some fifty years ago) was a sort of 

 sportsman's paradise ; and the very district where the great 

 hunter's and explorer's plantation was located, is still 

 the home of wild elephants and other splendid game: 

 for the natural forest in that district as yet covers a 

 very large section of country, full of deep and preci- 

 pitous ravines forming almost impenetrable harbouring 



* Ceylon, by Sir James Emerson Tennent, 1859, Vol. ii, p. 413. 

 f Eight Years in Ceylon, by Sir Sanrael W. Baker, 1874. 

 Near Newera Eliya a hill sanitarium, now a well-known resort 

 of tourists and invalids. 



