HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



went after it, it charged me at once as soon as I got 

 into its near neighbourhood, luckily falling, however, to 

 the fatal front shot as it came. I had considerable 

 difficulty in getting any natives to track this beast, as it 

 had killed several unfortunate villagers during its career 

 as a rogue. 



Had I not shown the men my heavy rifle I could never 

 have got them to take up the search ; they have faith in 

 a heavy gun, but none in a small bore. 



When in Badulla one day in November 1894 the late 

 Mr. Frank Fisher, then Government Agent (a true and 

 mighty hunter of big game), told me about the Butala 

 rogue. It had killed two villagers, damaged lots of crops, 

 and even molested some carts coming along the high-road, 

 so Mr. Fisher asked me to go for it, and gave me every 

 assistance by sending orders to the local headmen to 

 provide me with proper trackers, &c. 



I got my trackers all right, and one of them, an old 

 man by name Nippuna, turned out to be a real artist, 

 though he very nearly caused my undoing by bolting 

 with my spare rifle at the critical moment, as will be seen 

 later. 



On arrival at Butala I was disappointed to find no 

 news of the rogue, his presence not having made itself 

 felt in the neighbourhood for some days past. A rogue 

 is very sly, and usually leaves a place where he has been 

 doing a lot of damage alone for some time, making his 

 reappearance at intervals with unexpected suddenness. 



For three full days I and my men tramped the country 

 round in vain, and it was about 6 P.M. on the third day, 

 as we were crawling back dead-beat, and I had made up my 

 mind to give it up for a time, when old Nippuna suddenly 

 halted and examined a twig lying in the middle of a game 



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