16 The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 



There is one great drawback to the publication of 

 sporting adventures— they always appear to deal not a 

 little in the marvelous ; and this effect is generally 

 heightened by the use of the first person in writing, 

 which at all events may give an egotistical character to 

 a work. This, however, cannot easily be avoided if a 

 person is describing his own adventures, and he labors 

 under the disadvantage of being criticised by readers 

 who do not know him personally, and may, therefore, 

 give him credit for gross exaggeration. 



It is this feeling that deters many men who have 

 passed through years of wild sports from publishing an 

 account of them. The fact of being able to laugh in 

 your sleeve at the ignorance of a reader who does not 

 credit you is but a poor compensation for being con- 

 sidered a better shot with a long bow than with a rifle. 

 Often have I pitied Gordon dimming when I have 

 heard him talked of as a palpable Munchausen by men 

 who never fired a rifle, or saw a wild beast, except in a 

 cage ; and still these men form the greater proportion 

 of the " readers" of these works. 



Men who have not seen cannot understand the gran- 

 deur of wild sports in a wild country. There is an in- 

 describable feeling of supremacy in a man who under- 

 stands his game thoroughly, when he stands upon some 

 elevated point and gazes over the wild territory of 

 savage beasts. He feels himself an invader upon the 

 solitudes of nature. The very stillness of the scene is 

 his delight. There is a mournful silence in the calm- 

 ness of the evening, when the tropical sun sinks upon 

 the horizon — a conviction that man has left this region 

 undisturbed to its wild tenants. No hum of distant 

 voices, no rumbling of busy wheels, no cries of domestic 



