2oo The RlJJe and Hotind in Ceylon. 



among the rocks like distant thunder, till it at length 

 died away to stillness. 



Wc soon arrived in the vicinity of the sound, and 

 shortly discovered tracks upon a hard sandy soil, cov- 

 ered with rocks and overgrown with a low but tolerably 

 open jungle at the base of the mountain. Following 

 the tracks, we began to ascend steep flights of natural 

 steps formed by the successive layers of rock which 

 girded the foot of the mountain : these were covered 

 with jungle, interspersed with large detached masses of 

 rock, which in some places formed alleys through which 

 the herd had passed. The surface of the ground being 

 nothing but hard rock, tracking was very difficult, and 

 it took me a considerable time to follow them up by the 

 pieces of twigs and crunched leaves which the elephants 

 had dropped while feeding. I at length tracked them 

 to a small pool formed by the rain-water in the hollow 

 of the rock ; here they had evidently been drinking only 

 a few minutes previous, as the tracks of their feet upon 

 the margin of the pool were still wet. I now went on 

 in advance of the party with great caution, as I knew 

 that we were not many paces from the herd. Passing 

 through several passages among the rocks, I came sud- 

 denly upon a level plateau of ground covered with 

 dense lemon grass about twelve feet high, which was so 

 thick and tangled that a man could with difficulty force 

 his way through it. This level space was about two 

 acres in extent, and was surrounded by jungle upon all 

 sides but one ; on this side, to our right as we entered, 

 the mountain rose in rocky steps, from the crevices of 

 which the lemon grass grew in tall tufts. 



The instant that I arrived in this spot I perceived the 

 flap of an elephant's car in the high grass, about thirty 



