A Jungle Trip. 245 



ISLvvera Ellia about a week beforehand ; and, having 

 instructed him to leave a small box with a change of 

 clothes at the Dambool rest-house, I now felt the bene- 

 fit of the arrangement. The horsekeepers could not 

 possibly arrive that night. We therefore cleaned and 

 fed our own horses, and littered them down with a good 

 bed of paddy straw ; and, that being completed, we 

 turned our attention to curry and rice. 



The next morning at break of day, we fed the horses. 

 Old Jack was as fresh as a daisy. The morning was 

 delightfully cloudy, but free from rain ; and we cantered 

 on to Innamalow, five miles from Dambool. Here we 

 procured a guide to Minneria ; and turning off from the 

 main road into a narrow jungle path, we rode for 

 twenty miles through dense jungle. Passing the rock 

 of Sigiri, which was formerly used as a fort by the 

 ancient inhabitants of the country, we gradually en- 

 tered better jungle, and at length we emerged upon the 

 beautiful plains of Minneria. I had ordered Wallace 

 to pitch the encampment in the exact spot which I had 

 frequently occupied some years ago. I therefore knew 

 the rendezvous, and directed my course accordingly. 



What a change had taken place ! a continuous drought 

 had reduced the lake from its original size of twenty-two 

 miles in circumference, to a mere pool of about four 

 miles in circuit ; this was all that remained of the noble 

 sheet of water around which I had formerly enjoyed so 

 much sport. 



From the rich bed of the dry lake sprung a fine silky 

 grass of about two feet in height, forming a level plain 

 of velvet green far as the eye could reach. The turf 

 was firm and elastic ; the four o'clock sun had laid 

 aside the fiercest of his rays, and threw a gentle glow 

 21* 



