416 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP. 



roads, sometimes rendered impassable during the rainy season. 

 Now that the railway was in being, the old difficulty had dis- 

 appeared ; but in the face of the absurdity the troops had been 

 withdrawn ! " 



I often wonder how England manages to get on as she does ; 

 she hobbles along through modern history after her own fashion, 

 supported by the British taxpayer, the easily cajoled and easily 

 skinned John Bull. With our small and expensive army, which is 

 insufficient for our needs, we treat our soldiers in a manner that 

 would be considered a disgrace if they were domestic animals. No 

 person in Ceylon would keep his dogs in Colombo, if he could pro- 

 vide for them in the splendid climate of the hills. 



It is now forty years ago since I first introduced the brewing of 

 beer into Newera Ellia. This succeeded admirably, so long as a 

 good quality of malt was supplied from England ; it was an in- 

 teresting result of my early experiments to find an important 

 brewery worked by a company, who make their own malt, and 

 were about to grow their own barley in the Ouva district, about 13 

 miles from the sanatorium. 



The destruction of forests in the lower ranges which surround 

 Newera Ellia should have greatly increased the number of sambur 

 on the highest mountains, which remain untouched. Nothing can 

 compare in the present day with our game list of olden times ; the 

 hunting of the pack is confided to a native, and although I saw 

 some fine hounds, the whole style is differently arranged. We 

 always turned out regularly three times a week, and I hunted the 

 pack myself. Occasionally we gave the neighbourhood of Newera 

 Ellia a rest, and took the hounds for a few weeks either to the 

 Horton Plains, 18 or 20 miles distant, or to the Elephant Plains 

 in the opposite direction. 



The country offers many advantages, none of which have been 

 as yet developed. The highlands of Ceylon form an irregiilar series 

 of plateaux at varying levels. When Newera Ellia is reached, 

 although 6200 feet above the sea, it is not a mountain top, neither 

 is it, like those horrible places Simla and Darjeeling, a mere ridge, 

 girded by frightful precipices, without a level spot the size of an 

 ordinary dining-room, unless scarped artificially from the hillside, 

 but you can drive for miles upon more or less level roads in various 

 directions. There are many plains, some at the same altitude, 

 others at a much higher level ; for example, the Horton Plains. 

 The following description, extracted from E'ujht Years in Ceylon, 

 will afford more detailed information than I could bestow from 

 memory : " The principal mountains in Ceylon are Pedrotallagalla, 



