ELK HUNTING 



This latter method is simple enough when hounds are 

 all up and you happen to have the couples handy. 



A hind or a fawn is occasionally drowned in a deep 

 pool, and in such a position it is impossible to save them. 

 There are many reasons, too, why more stags than hinds 

 should be killed by hounds. The master is naturally 

 desirous of showing the best sport he can, and conse- 

 quently draws for stag. He harbours to the best of his 

 ability, and when he takes his pack into forest he is careful 

 to draw on the tracks of a stag. It is well known to all 

 who have hunted elk in Ceylon that the best stags lie on 

 the ridges and hill tops, and unless the sportsman draws in 

 on the fresh line of a stag, he keeps his pack together until 

 he is well up the hill. 



He also whips off hinds whenever he has the chance, 

 unless he is greatly in need of meat for his hounds. The 

 best opportunities for this occur when the hunted hind 

 breaks cover. The field can then range themselves across 

 the line, and with putties, belts, handkerchiefs, and even 

 neckties, the pack can generally be secured. My orders 

 to my dog boys were, when meat was not wanted, not 

 to slip the long-dogs on a hind, and under no circum- 

 stances on a fawn. 



In Atherton's Pool on the Horton Plains I have saved 

 many a hind and one spike buck, or brocket, as he is called at 

 home. The latter cost me a good hound, I regret to say, 

 for one of the pack that could not be stopped went away on 

 his line and was never seen again. He was probably picked 

 up by a leopard, a not uncommon fate of a single hound 

 in the large forests. I do not say for one moment that I 

 have not killed many hinds. Hounds must have blood, 

 and for the matter of that so must sportsmen, but no 

 wanton slaughter of hinds has ever been perpetrated, 



197 



