ON THE WEST COAST OF CEYLON. 99 



suggested he should stop to breakfast, when Jim Crow 

 would probably be able to show him the way. He 

 gladly accepted. About eleven Will returned with 

 a red deer, and heartily greeted F- , who was an 

 old friend. Jim Crow said the camp was about five 

 miles off, so he was sent to tell F 's people to 

 move it up to us. About sunset they arrived, and 



P* 's tracker came to make his report. He was 



a little wizened-up creature, but absolutely fearless, 



and had aided F to kill scores of elephants. 



Like those of most natives of the north, his head 

 and face were terribly scarred by bears. 



He reported the elephant to be using a jungle 

 not more than three miles from our camp, so it was 

 quite a chance Will had not come on him that 

 morning. He also added that it was a very "perilly 

 hora " (dangerous rogue). In spite of all his care the 

 brute had caught his wind, and had at once charged 

 down upon him, and he had had some difficulty in 

 slipping away among the tree-trunks. 



We spent the time before dinner in loading some 

 cartridges with five drachms of powder and a Macleod 

 bullet, a projectile which was then fashionable but 

 seems now to have entirely gone out of use. They 

 were cylindrical projectiles pierced from end to end 

 with holes which were twisted in somewhat the same 

 way as the rifling of a military rocket. The idea was 

 that the air passing through the holes would give a 

 rotatory movement to the projectile, which was about 

 twice the weight of a ball of the same calibre. I 

 cannot say I ever obtained any very satisfactory 



H 2 



