DEER-SHOOTING. 285 



at a headlong pace through the jungle. I could see 

 on the tree I have mentioned the white scar where a 

 bullet had taken off the bark, but the stag was gone. 

 I felt a bit disgusted till I saw the hounds begin to 

 worry just where he had been standing. I fought my 

 way through the thorns to them, and there was the 

 stag, stone-dead. He had been shot through the 

 heart, while the other bullet, which had struck the 

 tree, had been deflected into space. So I had reason 

 to be glad I had fired both barrels, though as a rule it 

 is not a practice to be recommended. I waited by the 

 stag till some of the coolies came in sight, when I 

 gave it into their charge and went to join the 



others. P had got another stag, and one of the 



others a red deer (muntjac). We went home to 

 breakfast in triumph, and that night the coolies held 

 high revel with the flesh. 



I may remark that seven deer in a morning's 

 driving is quite a phenomenal result. Besides this 

 there were two sambur missed in the last beat. Alto- 

 gether I may say that I have never seen this bag 

 equalled in Ceylon. 



Some years later it was my fate to spend some 

 weeks with two planters who were partners in a coffee 

 estate in the district of Haldummulla. Situated at a 

 height of about six thousand feet above the sea, the 

 climate of Ouva (as the old Ceylon province was called) 

 is far the finest in Ceylon, the rainfall being less immo- 

 derate than in some of the districts, in one of which rain 

 has been recorded on three hundred days in the year. 



