234 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



is then used to drive the deer to the open, where the 

 seizers are slipped at him. Their speed and size forces- 

 him to the water, where he is speedily despatched. 



There are, however, several crack packs, consisting 

 entirely of English foxhounds, with whom the chase 

 is carried on exactly as it is on Exmoor, except that 

 " tufters " are not used, as the sportsmen being on 

 foot they could not be stopped. It is hardly necessary 

 to say that such packs are only found in the possession 

 of wealthy planters. The cost of transport of hounds 

 from England is more than that of the hounds 

 themselves, say ten pounds a couple. Hounds are 

 not long-lived in Ceylon ; the wet jungle and the hot 

 sun soon bring on liver disease, and many fall victims 

 to the panther or wild boar, and even to the elk 

 himself. So, independent of feeding, the cost of hounds 

 is considerable. 



Again it is Christmas Day a year previous to the 

 one I have before mentioned. I am a guest of a 

 sporting planter, well known on the Ceylon turf and 



in the Blackmoor Vale. My host, F , arouses me 



while it is still dark, and I hastily dress myself. Tea 

 despatched, I goto the kennel with him. Six or seven 

 couple of foxhounds are the occupants. One is 

 picked out as lame, and another as " seedy." These 

 are shut up, and the rest are let out and bound round 

 us. A rate and a crack of the whip reduces them to 

 order, and we start for a neighbouring hill, meeting on 

 the way a couple of neighbouring planters. 



The covert to be drawn is situated on the shoulder 

 of a bare peak, the very name of which I have 



