HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



night, except that I went to sleep, as did my old shikari 

 evidently, for he suddenly roused me and whispered that 

 a leopard had come. I sat up and stared into the dim 

 shadows, seeing what looked like an animal of sorts, though 

 I was not satisfied that it was an animal, but urged by old 

 K. I fired, and kicked up a fountain of mud at the 

 foot of a snag. So much for old K.'s leopard, and he 

 waxed quite indignant when I hinted that he had been 

 asleep. In the morning I found that Tom had seen no 

 bears, but had killed a huge boar with fine tusks, and the 

 men took a grand side of bacon off him. I should say we 

 tried to track down my wounded bears, but found it hope- 

 less, the ground brick dry, and no blood trail, though there 

 was a little blood on the ground where they fell. We then 

 got back to our main camp, and had no more bear shooting 

 that trip, returning home soon after. 



A somewhat curious experience occurred once to myself 

 and my friend M. L. Wilkins, when bear shooting together. 

 We were watching a puddle in the breached bund of a small 

 abandoned tank, remote from any village, all surrounded 

 by forest, and had built a stage in a small tree about 6 feet 

 above the ground, commanding the water, which was about 

 15 yards to our front, whilst the dry watercourse from the 

 pool ran close past our stage, disappearing in the jungle on 

 our right. On our left, as we faced the pool, was a tiny 

 circular glade of grass, about 20 yards in diameter, just 

 touching the dry watercourse at our side, and of course 

 surrounded by forest. To more particularise the situation, 

 the tank, long breached and abandoned, was a little open 

 grassy park on its inside, surrounded by the usual forest ; 

 the bund was only about 6 or 8 feet high, and was clothed 

 in trees, whilst, with the exception of our tiny glade, the 

 forest came right up to and overlapped the outside of the 



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