2 8o GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



contains a good many, the Atlas still more, and that 

 will soon be open to sportsmen. Crete and Cyprus 

 are also available. Newfoundland, again, is not more 

 than a week's journey, and there the cariboo still 

 roam in considerable numbers. Having commenced 

 by saying I would not write about stalking, I have 

 already said too much on the subject. 



What, then, are the methods of shooting deer 

 other than stalking ? I recognise three, viz. : driving 

 them with beaters, hunting them with hounds, and 

 baying them with a dog, and then creeping in. The 

 last is best known as the means whereby the elk is 

 principally brought to hand in Sweden, but it is a 

 method of deer-shooting with which I am not familiar, 

 though I have made use of this plan to kill lynx and 

 wild boar. 



There remain, then, two legitimate methods, for I 

 do not look upon the practice of " calling " stags in 

 the rutting season as anything but rank poaching, 

 though it is greatly practised on the Continent. Of 

 these I will take driving first. I have in previous 

 chapters spoken of driving sambur and other deer in 

 India, and axis deer on the West Coast of Ceylon, 

 so I will not refer to that, but proceed at once to the 

 sport as practised in the coffee districts of that island. 



My first experience of this was when I formed 

 that very insignificant item in the garrison of Kandy, 

 the junior subaltern. We were asked to drive out to 

 a coffee district some twenty miles off for a ball. 

 What, unless the pure instinct of hospitality, prompted 

 the invitation I cannot say, for we were all bachelors, 



