The Hoi-ton Plains. 159 



breathing the pure thin air, he takes a survey of his 

 hunting-ground : no boundaries but mountain tops 

 and the horizon ; no fences but the trunks of decayed 

 trees fallen from old age ; no game laws but strong legs, 

 good wind and the hunting-knife ; no paths but those 

 trodden by the elk and elephant. Every nook and cor- 

 ner of this wild country is as familiar to me as my own 

 garden. There is not a valley that has not seen a burst 

 in full cry ; not a plain that has not seen the grayhounds 

 in full speed after an elk ; and not a deep pool in the 

 river that has not echoed with a bay that has made the 

 rocks ring again. 



To give a person an interest in the sport the country 

 must be described minutely. The plain already men- 

 tioned as the flat table-land first seen on arrival is about 

 five miles in length and two in breath in the widest part. 

 This is tolerably level, with a few gentle undulations, 

 and is surrounded, on all sides but one, with low, for- 

 est-covered slopes. The low portions of the plains are 

 swamps, from which springs a large river, the source 

 of the Mahawelli Ganga. 



From the plain now described about fifteen others 

 diverge, each springing from the parent plain, and 

 increasing in extent as they proceed ; these are con- 

 nected more or less by narrow valleys and deep ravines. 

 Through the greater portion of these plains the river 

 winds its wild course. In the first a mere brook, it 

 rapidly increases as it traverses the lower portions of 

 every valley, until it attains a width of twenty or thirty 

 yards within a mile of the spot where it is first discern- 

 ible as a stream. Every plain in succession being lower 

 than the first, the course of the river is extremely irreg- 

 ular ; now a maze of tortuous windings, then a broad, 



