this was far more than I expected when I first saw the herd in such a secure position. 'Having arrived at Doolana, on the 5th of April 1847, with excellent Moormen trackers, who were elephant-catchers by profession, I started for a day's sport in company with my brother B. This particular portion of the district is entirely inhabited by Moormen. They are a fine race of people, far superior to the Cingalese. They are supposed to be descended from Arabian origin, and they hold the Mahometan religion. The Rhatamahatmeya, or head man of the district, resides at Doolana, and he had received us in a most hospitable manner. We therefore started direct from his house. Passing through a belt of low thick jungle, exactly in front of the village, we entered upon the plain which formed the border of the tank. This lake is about three miles in length, but is not more than a mile in width in its widest part, and in some places is very much less. The opposite side of the tank is fine open forest, which grows to the water's edge, and is in some parts flooded during the wet season. At this time the soil was deep and muddy. 'This was not a place visited by sportsmen at that period; and upon arriving at the margin of the lake, an exciting view presented itself. Scattered over the extent of the lake were thirteen "rogue" elephants. One was not a quarter of a mile from us; another was so far off, he could hardly be distinguished; another was close to the opposite jungle; and they were, in fact, all single elephants. There was an exception to this, however, in one pair of elephants, who stood in the very centre of the tank, side by side; they were as black as ebony, and although in view with many brother rogues, they appeared giants even among giants. The Moormen immediately informed us that they were a notorious pair, who always associated together, and were the dread of the neighbourhood. There were many tales of their ferocity and daring, which at the time we gave little heed to. Crossing the tank in a large canoe, we arrived in the open forest upon the opposite shore. It was a mass of elephant-tracks, which sunk deep in the soft earth. They were all so fresh and so confused, that tracking was very difficult. However, we at length fixed upon the tracks of a pair of elephants, and followed them up. This was a work of considerable time; but the distant cracking of a bough at length attracted us to their position, and we shortly came up with them, just as they had winded us and were moving off. I fired an ineffectual shot at the temple of one, which separated him from the other, after whom we started in chase at full speed. Full speed soon ended in a stand-still in such ground; it was deep stiff clay, in which we sunk over our ankles at every step, and varied our struggles by occasionally flying sprawling over the slippery roots of the trees. 'The elephants ran clean away from us; and the elephantcatchers, who knew nothing of the rules for carrying spare guns, entering into the excitement of the chase, and free from the impediment of shoes, ran lightly along the muddy ground, and were soon out of sight as well as the elephants. Still we struggled on, when presently we heard a shout, and then the trumpet of an elephant. Shot after shot then followed, with a chorus of shouts; they were actually firing all our spare guns! In a few moments we were up with them. In a beautifully open piece of forest, upon good hard ground, these fellows were having a regular battle with the rogue. He was charging them with the greatest fury; but he no sooner selected one man for his object, than these active fellows diverted his rage by firing into his hind quarters, and yelling at him. At this he would immediately turn and charge another man, when he would again be assailed as before. When we arrived, he immediately charged B., and came straight at him, but offered a beautiful shot in doing so, and B. dropped him dead. that we could not cross it. We therefore struck off to the edge of the forest, where the waters of the lake washed the roots of the trees, and from this point we had a fine view of the greater portion of the lake. All the rogues we had at first counted had retired to their several entrances in the forest, except the pair of desperadoes already mentioned: they knew no fear, and had not heeded the shots fired. They were tempting baits, and we determined to get them if possible. These two villains were standing belly-deep in the water, about a quarter of a mile from the shore; and the question was, "How were we to get near them?" Having observed that the other rogues had retreated to the forest at the noise of the firing, it struck me that we might by some ruse induce these two champions to follow their example, and by meeting them on their entrance we might bring them to action. 'Not far from our left, a long shallow bank, covered with reeds, stretched far into the tank. By wading knee - deep along this shoal, a man might approach within two hundred paces of the elephants, and would be nearly abreast of them. I therefore gave a man a gun, and instructed him to advance to the extreme end of the shal'The firing had disturbed a lows, taking care to conceal herd of elephants from the forest, himself in the rushes, and when and they had swam the large at the nearest point he was to river in the neighbourhood, fire at the elephants. This, I which was at that time so swollen | hoped, would drive them to the jungle, where we should endea- I was carrying the long twovour to meet them. The Moor-ounce rifle of sixteen pounds, man entrusted on this mission was which, with ammunition, etc., a plucky fellow, and he started made up about thirteen and a off, taking a double-barrelled half stone, in deep stiff clay. I gun and a few charges of powder was literally half-way up the and ball. The elephant-catchers calf of my leg in mud at every were delighted with the idea, step, while these light naked and we patiently awaited the fellows tripped like snipes over result. About a quarter of an the sodden ground. Vainly I hour passed away, when we called upon them to go easily; suddenly saw a puff of white their moment of excitement smoke spring from the green was at its full pitch, and they rushes at the point of the sand- were soon out of sight among bank. A few moments after, the trees and underwood, taking we heard the report of the gun, all the spare guns, except the and we saw the ball splash in four-ounce rifle, which, weighing the water close to the elephants. twenty-one pounds, effectually They immediately cocked their prevented the bearer from leavears, and throwing their trunks ing us behind. What added high in the air, they endea- materially to the annoyance of voured to wind the enemy; but losing the spare guns, was the they did not move, and they thoughtless character of the adshortly again commenced feed-vance. ing upon the water-lilies. Another shot from the same place once more disturbed them, and while they winded the unseen enemy, two more shots in quick succession from the old quarter decided their opinion, and they stalked proudly through the water to the shore. 'Our satisfaction was great, but the delight of the elephantcatchers knew no bounds. Away they started along the shores of the lake, hopping from root to root, skipping through the mud, which was more than a foot deep, their light forms hardly sinking in the tough surface. A nine-stone man certainly has an advantage over one of twelve in this ground; added to this, I felt sure that these fellows would outrun the position of the elephants, which, if they had continued in a direct route, would have entered the jungle within three hundred yards of our first station. 'We had slipped and plunged and struggled over this distance, when we suddenly were checked in our advance. We had entered a small plot of deep mud and rank grass surrounded upon all sides by dense rattan jungle. This stuff is one woven mass of hooked thorns: long tendrils, armed in the same manner, although not thicker than whipcord, wind themselves round the parent canes, and form a jungle which even elephants dislike to enter. To man, these jungles are perfectly impervious. Half-way to our knees in mud, we stood in this small open space of about thirty feet by twenty. Around us was an opaque screen of this impenetrable jungle; the lake lay about fifty yards upon our left, behind the thick rattan. The gun-bearers were gone ahead somewhere, and were far in advance. We were at a standstill. Leaning upon my long rifle, I stood within four feet of the wall of jungle which divided us from the lake. I said to B., "The trackers are all gone wrong, and have gone too far. I am convinced that the elephants must have entered somewhere near this place." Little did I think that at that very moment they were within a few feet of us. B. was standing behind me, on the opposite side of the small open, or about seven yards from the jungle. I suddenly heard a deep guttural sound in the thick rattan within four feet of me; in the same instant, the whole tangled fabric bent over me, and bursting asunder, showed the furious head of an elephant with uplifted trunk in full charge upon me. I had barely time to cock my rifle, and the barrel almost touched him as I fired. I knew it was in vain, as his trunk was raised. B. fired his right-hand barrel at the same moment, without effect, from the same cause. I jumped on one side, and attempted to spring | through the deep mud. It was of no use, the long grass entangled my feet, and in another instant I lay sprawling in the enraged elephant's path, within a foot of him. In that moment of suspense, I expected to hear the crack of my own bones as his massive foot would be upon me. It was an atom of time. I heard the crack of a gun : it was B.'s last barrel. I felt a spongy weight strike my heel, and turning quickly heels overhead, I rolled a few paces, and regained my feet. That last shot had floored him just as he was upon me; the end of his trunk had fallen upon my heel. Still he was not dead, but struck at me with his trunk as I passed round his head to give him a finish with the four-ounce rifle, which I had snatched from our solitary gun-bearer. 'My back was touching the jungle from which the rogue had just charged, and I was almost in the act of firing through the temple of the still struggling elephant, when I heard a tremendous crash in the jungle behind me similar to the first, and the savage scream of an elephant. I saw the ponderous fore-leg cleave its way through the jungle directly upon me. I threw my whole weight back against the thick rattans to avoid him, and the next moment his foot was planted within an inch of mine. His lofty head was passing over me in full charge at B., who was unloaded, when, holding the four heard the wounded elephant crashing through the jungle, and they had given him a volley just as he was crossing the river, over which the herd had escaped in the morning. They described the elephant as perfectly helpless from his wound, and they imagined that he had fallen in the thick bushes on the opposite bank of the river. As I before mentioned, we could not cross the river on account of the torrent; but in a few days it subsided, and the elephant was found lying dead on the spot where they supposed he had fallen. ounce rifle perpendicularly, I fired exactly under his throat. I thought he would fall upon me and crush me; but this shot was the only chance, as B. was perfectly helpless. A dense cloud of smoke from the heavy charge of powder for the moment obscured everything. I had jumped out of the way the instant after firing. The elephant did not fall, but he had his death-wound: the ball had severed his jugular, and the blood poured from the wound. He stopped; but collecting his stunned energies, he still blundered forward towards B. He, however, avoided him by run- 'Thus happily ended the dening to one side, and the wounded struction of this notable pair; brute staggered on through the they had proved themselves all jungle. We now loaded the that we had heard of them, and guns; the first rogue was quite by their cunning dodge of hiddead, and we followed in pur- ing in the thick jungle they had suit of rogue number two. We nearly made sure of us. We heard distant shots, and upon killed three rogues that mornarriving at the spot we found ing, and we returned to our the gun-bearers. They had quarters well satisfied.' CHAPTER VI. ADVENTURE WITH A BUFFALO. 'THE haunts of the buffalo are in the hottest parts of Ceylon. In the neighbourhood of lakes, swamps, and extensive plains, the buffalo exists in large herds; wallowing in the soft mire, and passing two-thirds of his time in the water itself, he may be almost termed amphibious. He is about the size of a large ox, of immense bone and strength, very active, and his hide is almost free from hair, giving a disgusting appearance to his india-rubber-like skin. He carries his head in a peculiar manner, the horns thrown back, and his nose projecting on a level with his forehead, thus securing himself from a front shot in a fatal part. This renders him a dangerous enemy, as |