HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



who were on a trip and were then in that bungalow, and 

 also for the Mudaliyar, who was at Minneriya to hold 

 " court." I left again by 6 o'clock, as soon as I had seen 

 the Mudaliyar, and tramped on for Polonnaruwa, getting 

 there about 10 A.M. about done, as also were my coolies, 

 the heat being very intense, and distance walked, with 

 three hours' rest, being 28 miles, I carrying a gun all the 

 time. At Polonnaruwa my friend McDonnell, being in 

 residence, ministered to my wants and I stayed there that 

 day and night. Next morning I tramped off to Diwulani, 

 distance about 7 miles, and put up in a small thatched 

 shed which had been erected for the Government Agent 

 some time before. This is a biggish Moorish village on 

 the side of the great swamp, which at this point exhibits 

 a grand expanse of open water fringed with a wide margin 

 of weeds and lotus growth, the whole being bordered by 

 big forest. I got some trackers here, and after breakfast 

 set off accompanied by an old Singhalese " arachi " (minor 

 headman), to cross the water in a miserable dug-out canoe, 

 in which we had to sit lop-sided to keep a huge hole at one 

 side of it out of the water. Arrived at the other side of 

 the swamp we crossed the short grass space between the 

 water and the forest, on the edge of which we at once 

 picked up a fresh track of the elephant, and a bigger track 

 I have never seen before or since like young wells in the 

 soft ground ! Entering the forest I took the 8-bore, giving 

 my " Paradox " to the Arachi, while some of the Moormen 

 took up the tracking. The forest here was very dense and 

 the track gradually led us into an awful thicket of thorny 

 rattan creepers, into which I was fool enough to follow it. 

 We got into this deeper and deeper until, suddenly turning 

 a corner in the track, we saw the stern of the elephant dis- 

 appearing round another corner about 20 yards ahead of 



