ELEPHANTS 



round the extreme north end of the Matale East hills to Gal- 

 boda, which we found to be a picturesque little village 

 situated under a half-circle of frowning precipices of 

 forest-covered cliffs and bare rock, rising in places fully 

 2000 feet above the level of the village. These precipices 

 form the extreme north end of the Matale East range 

 of hills, which are also part of the great Hunasgiriya range, 

 the eastern boundary of the Matale Valley. We took up 

 our residence in a sort of shed, sent for an ancient headman, 

 and made inquiries, when we soon found that there were 

 many elephants about, all doing damage. The valley of 

 this village contained several small jungle-covered ridges 

 running north and south parallel to each other, usually 

 having native pathways in the bottom of the small valleys 

 between them, these same bottoms forming pretty glades of 

 short grass. The scrub of this valley was awful impene- 

 trable thorn scrub, and the forest on the ridges was almost 

 laid down flat by the depredations of elephants. We found 

 broad elephant roads along the summit of every ridge, hard 

 trodden, and resting-places under every shady tree along 

 these roads, recent traces of elephants being visible every- 

 where. The very night of our arrival an elephant visited 

 the village and destroyed some coconut palms within 200 

 yards of our " lodging." For two days we did not get 

 a shot, though we saw two elephants, but on the third day, 

 walking down one of the little valleys, we espied an elephant 

 calmly feeding amongst low jungle up on the hillside 300 

 or 400 feet above us. The villagers were no use as hunters 

 and afraid of elephants, so the men with us were of no 

 assistance. After a consultation we decided that I should 

 go up the hill, get above the elephant, and try to drive it 

 down to Tom if I could not kill it, so off I set. After 

 a fearful crawl and scramble through horrible undergrowth 



