310 WILD BEASTS AND TIIEIK WAYS CHAP. 



firmly at arm's length. This requires great strength of arm and a 

 linn footing, but, above all things, a blade that is more dependable 

 than the British bayonet. 



For seven years I kept my own pack of hounds at Newera 

 Ellia in Ceylon, G200 feet above the sea. During that time I was 

 hunting regularly throughout a large extent of country, and I much 

 regret that I kept a game-book only during the last two years of 

 my residence in that delightful sanatorium. I commenced the 

 diary at the instigation of a friend, to whom I owe much for the 

 advice, which has afforded me intense pleasure when looking back 

 to former years. In that journal I noted down every detail of each 

 separate hunt, and when I regard the sum total, and remember 

 that every animal was run down on foot, and killed with the knife, 

 when brought to bay and seized by the hounds, I must acknowledge 

 that anything that I have been able to accomplish since that time 

 lias been a mere nothing compared with the hard work of that 

 interesting period. The journal commenced in October 1851 and 

 ended in March 1854, at a time when severe illness necessitated 

 an immediate return to England. In those years the diary shows 

 the following list of killed : 



Sambur deer, 138. Wild hogs, 14. Red-deer, 8. 



During only a portion of those years I was accompanied by my 

 brother ; for five years preceding I was quite alone, excepting the 

 presence of my huntsman, and occasionally accompanied by a 

 friend. The success throughout the entire period was in the same 

 proportion as that enumerated in the diary. Although many wild 

 boars were killed, they were never objects of the hunts, but, on the 

 contrary, they were if possible avoided, as an encounter invariably 

 resulted in the sacrifice of hounds, either killed, or incapacitated 

 by serious wounds. 



It was no easy matter to call the hounds off a scent when in 

 the wild forest, where they could run riot at their own free will, 

 and there was no means of reaching them. 



If I saw the fresh tracks of a large boar, I always endeavoured 

 to collect the pack, and secure the hounds in couples, in order to 

 prevent them from following upon the inviting scent. But too 

 frequently I heard the opening notes of a leading hound before I 

 could gather my pack together ; in that case there was no longer 

 any hope, as the hounds would immediately join in full cry, and 

 there was nothing more to do but to await the event. 



A boar never runs for any great distance before the hounds ; it 

 goes straight away at the first burst, but quickly turns, first up 



