HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



at the chest ! Make up your mind never to leave the track 

 of a wounded animal as long as you can follow it, or as long 

 as there is any hope of catching it up. 



Some people will say there is not much sport in shooting 

 an innocent, harmless deer, and perhaps they are right ; but 

 there is a fascination about all deer shooting hard to resist, 

 and I confess I am very fond of it. There is more sport, 

 of course, in going for dangerous game such as elephants, 

 buffaloes, bears, and leopards ; but the two former are not 

 always available, and licences are costly, whilst the two latter 

 are only met with by accident, except in the height of the 

 dry season, when they can occasionally be shot at water- 

 holes at night. 



I bagged a buck once at an old camp site, as I was 

 quietly approaching the place. I was ahead of my men, 

 and, knowing I was approaching an open space, came very 

 quietly and cautiously out of the forest on to a big slab 

 rock, at one side of which I was going to camp, as I had 

 often done before. Deer, and especially elk, are rather fond 

 of coming out on to these sort of rocks, and in this case I 

 caught sight of five or six spotted does and a buck standing 

 within a few yards of my camping place. They began to 

 move off at once, but the buck stayed a second too long, 

 and I put in a quick shot, at which he darted across the 

 rock after the does and disappeared down a slight slope, at 

 the bottom of which I had the satisfaction of finding him 

 dead. The head was a poor one, unfortunately. 



In the afternoon of the same day I was out with two old 

 trackers, and we sighted a few does in one of the parks. I 

 stalked to within about 90 yards, and then discovered 

 a buck amongst them, at which I took a shot from the 

 sitting position, elbows on knees. The does bolted round 

 a clump of bushes and streamed away across the park, but 



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