HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



before he has time to think, and with the vaguest aim. 

 I'll tell ,you what occurred to me the first time I tried 

 my hand at the game. This was in 1891, nearly four 

 years after my arrival in Ceylon, and I had been reading 

 " Sport in Ceylon," by a " Planter," a brochure produced 

 and printed in the island, which inflamed me with a desire 

 to go and do likewise, having already acquired a " taste " 

 by two or three years small game shooting on the estate. 



I wrote to (the late) Mr. levers, then Government 

 Agent at Anuradhapura, for a licence to shoot an elephant 

 (Rs. 10, only, in those days), but he declined to grant 

 me a general licence, telling me, however, I could have 

 a free shot at a " rogue " which had been chasing the 

 tapal l coolies near Polonnaruwa. I promptly hired a cart 

 from my local cart contractor, loaded it up with a few 

 necessaries, and armed only with a 12-bore Paradox (for 

 which I had myself cast the necessary ball and loaded the 

 cartridges with 4 drachms best black powder), I set off 

 brimful of enthusiasm. At Dambulla I had to lie up a 

 day boil on my ankle and this troubled me for the 

 rest of the journey. Leaving the main road at Haburane 

 I turned down the Minneriya track, and a track only it 

 was at that time, there being no excellent gravel road as 

 now. We had to unload the cart at every watercourse, 

 and had great difficulty in making Minneriya (16 miles) 

 first day. I stayed there two days snipe shooting and 

 then pushed on to Polonnaruwa, where I put up in an 

 empty newly built (mud and thatch) dispensary. The 

 next day, having engaged some trackers and explained 

 that I was after the rogue, I was conducted to the south 

 end' of Topawewa, where an elephant of fair size had 



1 " Tapal " = letter post. It is pronounced " taval " by the ordinary 

 cooly. AUTHOR. 



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