THE PHYSICAL FEATURES 



Bungalow, and they are unfurnished. Water is bad, and 

 you have to know where to find it before you can camp. 

 If you are a stranger you are at the mercy of your hired 

 native servants and the thieves you may have to take as 

 coolies, or you have to leave everything to your pro- 

 fessional shikari picked up in Colombo (some of whom, 

 by the way, are good men enough), and pay " through the 

 nose." If you leave your cart, carriers are very hard to 

 get and ask for exorbitant pay, in agreeing to which, and 

 in over-paying the local trackers, the casual visitor " spoils 

 the market " for all time. 



In my younger days I used to travel entirely on foot, 

 carrying my bag and baggage by means of pack-bullocks, 

 but I don't recommend this method to a stranger. I knew 

 my men and could get all the work I wanted out of them 

 and their bulls, but they were often a great nuisance, though 

 they certainly enabled me to get to places unapproachable 

 by cart and where I could not have got carriers. Their 

 drawbacks are, their packs do not take kindly to irregular- 

 shaped objects, such as camp beds, chairs, cooking pots, 

 gun cases, &c., and at first starting some of the bulls are 

 sure to kick off their packs and do a bit of a bolt. Again, 

 in camp they have to be tethered close by as a protection 

 against leopards, thus attracting insects of all sorts and 

 fouling the camp with their droppings. When out to 

 feed they are apt to wander, and have to be closely watched 

 in fact are too much of a nuisance to be used as a regular 

 means of transport. Nowadays I send a cart off, with all 

 my things and three or four coolies, to the point where I 

 leave the main road, a week before I start myself, and then 

 I do the journey in one day on my bicycle. I will then 

 find, when I reach my men, a gang of villagers waiting to 

 carry my things, arranged for previously by letter to a 



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