A Jtingle Trip. 255 



straight into the cloud of smoke an elephant rushed 

 toward us. V. Baker fired, but missed ; and my left-hand 

 barrel extinguished him. Running through the smoke 

 with a spare rifle I killed the last elephant. They were 

 all bagged — five elephants within thirty seconds from 

 the first shot fired. Wortley had commenced well, hav- 

 ing killed his first elephant with one shot. 



We found breakfast ready on our return to the horses, 

 and having disturbed this part of the country by the 

 heavy volley at the herd, we returned to Minneria. 



I was convinced that we could expect no sport in 

 this neighborhood ; we therefore held a consultation as 

 to our line of country. 



Some years ago I had entered the north of the Ved- 

 dah country from this point, and I now proposed that 

 we should start upon a trip of discovery, and endeavor 

 to penetrate from the north to the south of the Veddah 

 country into the " Park." No person had ever shot 

 over this route, and the wildness of the idea only in- 

 creased the pleasure of the trip. We had not the least 

 idea of the distance, but we knew the direction by a 

 pocket compass. 



There was but one objection to the plan, and this 

 hinged upon the shortness of V. Baker's leave. He 

 had only ten clays unexpired, and it seemed rash, with 

 so short a term, to plunge into an unknown country ; 

 however, he was determined to push on, as he trusted 

 in the powers of an extraordinary pony that would do 

 any distance on a push. This determination, however, 

 destroyed a portion of the trip, as we were obliged to 

 push quickly through a lovely sporting country, to ar- 

 rive at a civilized, or rather an acknowledged, line of 

 road by which he could return to Kandy. Had we, on 



