ELK HUNTING 



the rhododendron drops glittered with its frosty covering, 

 and down by the falls lay a piece of drift timber from 

 which one could scrape quite a snowball. At a jog we 

 went down the river-side path, not a word spoken, for it 

 was no time for conversation, Bountiful and Lifter with 

 their heads just past the master's knee, a place of honour 

 ever insisted on, and jealously guarded by those two grand 

 old hounds. The line of a travelling hind brings down the 

 noses of a whole pack in a moment, and then heads are 

 raised, keen and with working nostrils ; however the dog 

 boy has an eye on them, and stands with ready whip whilst 

 the master moves forward a bit faster along his path, and 

 with a word to his pack gets them together again in their 

 places at his heels. As we pass Figure of Eight and 

 Diamond Pools a fat brown trout or two rise, sending rings 

 of wavelets to either bank, and farther on an otter is seen 

 plashing through the shallows above Slab Rock Falls. 



Far away in the distance from the slopes of Kirigalpota 

 the resounding clamour of Wanderoo monkeys, answered 

 from the steep crags of Kuduhugalla, disturb the silence of 

 the still morning, and a covey of spur fowl cackle noisily 

 amongst the tall trees by the river's bank. Overhead 

 across the sky, a pair of Lady Torrington pigeons wing a 

 business-like flight to some group of Kudadowala trees, 

 their present feeding grounds, and beneath our feet a snipe 

 rises and flaps lazily away for 20 yards or so, looking for 

 all the world, in that dim morning light, as large as a 

 woodcock. Just as we top the ridge above Baker's Falls 

 the rising sun lights up the top of Kirigalpota Peak, whilst 

 down below stretches in dim shadow the Gallagamma 

 Valley, so named from the falls two miles below. Here 

 this lovely stream plunges over 2000 feet of precipice and 

 slab rock into the Gallagamma paddy fields. Thence 



177 M 



