282 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



enough after dinner to smoke a cheroot. In fact, I 

 think we had all been dozing before we turned in, 

 which we did soon after nine o'clock. 



Next morning we were up before the conch-shell 

 sounded to call the coolies to work. After we had 

 disposed of our tea we started for \hepatana, which was 

 many acres in extent, and mostly covered with 

 elephant-grass nearly five feet high. I was accom- 

 panied by my two kangaroo hounds, Rajah and 

 Ranee, immensely powerful brutes, used to elk-hunting. 

 They were invaluable when it came to knifing an elk, 

 as they never failed to hold. When the elk turned 

 his head to look at me at my first approach, one of 

 them would seize him with a never-failing grip by the 

 ear. As the brute gave his head a swing to shake off 

 the first dog he exposed the other ear to the second, 

 who was equally sure to improve the opportunity. 

 This enabled me to run in and use the knife with 

 safety. I have even seen them holding a huge boar 

 by the ears, but the brute crashed through the jungle 

 as if their weight was nothing, till I was able to shoot 

 him. In less than half an hour we arrived on our 

 shooting ground. A couple of score of coolies 



accompanied us to beat. As P knew no more 



about the place from a shooting point of view than we 

 did, we held a council of war. It was decided to beat 

 the leeward side of the patana up, and then come back 

 down the other side. We posted ourselves according 

 to our ideas of where we were most likely to get a shot. 



P was opposite me, there being a valley between 



us, and the other two were further on. 



