CHAPTER XIII 



ELK HUNTING 

 BY THOMAS FARR 



BETWEEN five and seven thousand feet above sea-level in 

 the uplands of Ceylon, where the climate is more English 

 than tropical, the sport known as elk hunting holds a 

 high rank in the varied sport to be obtained in this charm- 

 ing island. The sportsman must of necessity " travel 

 light," impeded by nothing that he cannot carry with 

 ease and comfort to himself. He must be sound in 

 wind and limb, for there is no greater test of endurance 

 and fitness than a long day among these rough hills and 

 forests, with a good pack of foxhounds, in pursuit of the 

 sambhur. 



The sport is attended with a considerable amount of 

 luck one way or the other. There are the blank days, and 

 there are the days when a cold rain soaks you to the skin. 

 There are the days, too, when a howling wind utterly pre- 

 vents your hearing the note of a single hound, and in elk 

 hunting nearly everything depends upon hearing and a 

 knowledge of the country. With hounds once in the 

 forest, the owner hesitates to leave them, be the weather 

 never so wet and windy, and lost hounds are a very serious 

 item in the game. Unless you have a good balance at your 

 banker's, the loss of a hound costing you perhaps over a 

 hundred rupees is no light matter, let alone his individual 

 value as an elk hound. Besides, is there not some 

 stronger feeling that impels the master of a pack to leave 



