HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



man, E. Gordon Reeves, has been kind enough to permit 

 me to make use of the following excellent and, I believe, 

 very typical account of an elk hunt with dogs and gun in 

 our hill forests a style of hunting I have had no ex- 

 perience of whatever. 



Mr. Reeves wrote the article for the Field in 1904, 

 so I hope the editor will forgive my bit of crimping. 



AFTER SAMBHUR IN THE HILL FORESTS 

 OF CELYON 



Having determined to try for a certain old buck 

 sambhur on the following morning, W. and I ordered tea to 

 be on the table sharp at 5.30 A.M., to enable us to be at the 

 jungle edge before sunrise, thus giving the hounds a chance 

 of finding before all scent disappeared. I know nothing 

 more exhilarating than being out on a fresh February 

 morning before sunrise, gun in hand, and an extremely 

 merry pack at heel, with the chance of a good day's sport 

 before you. On our way up the hill to the valley we 

 proposed to draw, we could hear the big grey-faced 

 Wanderoo monkeys hooting high up on the forest-clad 

 cliffs, and now and then an old jungle-cock would utter in 

 clarion tones his curious call of ' ' Tsk, George Joyce ! " 

 and would be answered from a neighbouring knoll, back 

 and forth, to and fro, for half-an-hour on end. As we 

 near the jungle the dogs begin to get excited, and are with 

 great difficulty kept from rushing in, chained and coupled 

 as they are, after a herd of red monkeys, with which the 

 forest swarms. 



It would be well here to describe the lay of the land 

 which we intended to hunt. From the boundary of the 

 tea fields the jungle runs in a steep slope to the height 



168 



