HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



among mighty boulders and through deep rocky gorges it 

 tears and roars down to Belihuloya, and on by gentler slopes 

 through paddy fields and native gardens to the Wallaway 

 Ganga until it reaches the sea near Hambantota. Halting 

 at the summit, and before we drop into the valley below, 

 whence no sound of voices shall reach the jungle we had 

 decided to draw first, a few minutes are occupied in giving 

 orders about the long-dogs. Smiler and Wallace being fast, 

 are told off to command a wide stretch of patna. Grip 

 and Sandy are placed at one of the well-known game- 

 crossings half a mile below, towards which, down any one 

 of the steep slopes, a cunning old stag may try to slip 

 away ; Slavin and Zulu remain with the master to be held 

 outside on the patna ridge as soon as the hounds are taken 

 into the forest. A short pack in the matter of seizers, but 

 so strong in finders that to-day's stag will have to be a 

 good one to beat them. 



Old Tip, a fast lurcher, half-greyhound and retriever, is 

 allowed to run with the pack. The tracks of a heavy stag 

 are noticed among some old rootings of pig on the ridge 

 above Tiger's Pool, and a freshly rubbed rhododendron 

 tree points to a hard head. The sharp points of the antlers, 

 too, have scored a branch high up, proclaiming an excep- 

 tionally large stag, and the dust of the bark lies dry and 

 powdery in the cup of a fallen leaf, which proves the 

 rubbing to have been of this morning, or last night's shower 

 would have washed it off. Bountiful and Malibran, both 

 steady line hunters and good finders, begin to feather on a 

 line in a ferny hollow beyond us and near the jungle edge, 

 and Juno's tawny stern is seen disappearing through the 

 brambly fringe of the forest. As an elk hound Juno is 

 the type of what a hound should be, keen, and quick to 

 find, but sparing of her voice until there should be no mis- 



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