HUNTING IN INDIA. 233 



IV. ELK* HUNTING IN THE MOUNTAINS OF CEYLON. 



I naturally feel a diffidence in writing of this 

 branch of Ceylon sport, as it has been so fully described 

 by that best of sporting writers, Sir Samuel Baker. 

 However, as the " Rifle and Hound in Ceylon " has 

 now been written many years, I may be allowed to 

 devote a few pages to this most fascinating sport, 

 especially as my day in Ceylon was long after that of 

 the famous triot of brothers, all, alas ! now dead. 



Elk-hunting in Ceylon is nearly always carried out 

 on foot. Of late years it has been the fashion for 

 several of the masters of crack packs to form a camp 

 for hunting purposes in the Elk Plains or the Horton 

 Plains, where hounds can sometimes be followed on 

 horseback ; but this is only for a week or so in the 

 year. The elk frequent the thick jungles, which are 

 interspersed between the coffee estates, and commit 

 mighty ravages in the fields of guinea-grass, which are 

 grown for the benefit of the planters' horses and cattle. 

 When they become too great a nuisance a drive is 

 organised, and some are shot and the others dispersed. 

 But if it is a district where there is a pack of hounds 

 they afford finer sport still. Most districts possess 

 hounds of some sort. Many of the packs are of the 

 scratch variety, consisting of hounds crossed with the 

 native pariah dog, terriers, etc. With such packs 

 seizers are generally used. These are Scotch deer- 

 hounds, or kangaroo or Rampur hounds. The pack 



* Elk is a misnomer applied to the sambur deer in Ceylon, 

 t Samuel, Valentine, and John Baker. 



