THE 



Rifle and Hound. 



CHAPTER I. 



Wild Country — Dealings in the Marvelous — Enchant- 

 ing Moments — The Wild Elephant of Ceylon — " Rogues " 

 — Elephant Slaughter — Thick Jungles — Character of 

 the Country — Varieties of Game in Ceylon — " Battery 

 for Ceylon Sport " — The Elk, or " Samber Deer " — 

 Deer Coursing. 



IT is a difficult task to describe a wild country so 

 exactly that a stranger's eye shall at once be made 

 acquainted with its scenery and character by the 

 description. And yet this is absolutely necessary if the 

 narration of sports in foreign countries is supposed to 

 interest those who have never had the opportunity of 

 enjoying them. The want of graphic description of 

 localities in which the events have occurred is the prin- 

 cipal cause of that tediousness which generally accom- 

 panies the steady perusal of a sporting work. You can 

 read twenty pages with interest, but a monotony soon 

 pervades it, and sport then assumes an appearance of 

 mere slaughter. 



Now, the actual killing of an animal, the death itself, 

 is not sport, unless the circumstances connected with it 

 2 13 



