between were the red drops upon the ground, that I was constantly
obliged to leave the gun-bearer upon the last trace, while I made a cast
to discover the next track. I was at length in despair of finding him,
and I was attentively scrutinising the ground for a trace of blood,
which would distinguish his track from those of other deer with which
the ground was covered, when I suddenly heard a rush in the underwood,
and away bounded the buck at about fifty yards' distance, apparently as
fresh as ever. The next instant he was gasping on the ground, the
rifle-ball having passed exactly through his heart. I never could have
believed that a spotted buck would have attained so large a size; he was
as large as a doe elk, and his antlers were the finest I have ever seen
of that species. It required eight men with two cross poles to bring him
home.

I reached the tent to breakfast at eight o'clock, having bagged three
fine bucks and two buffaloes that morning; and being, for the time,
satiated with sport, I quitted Ceylon.



CHAPTER VIII.

Beat-hounds for Elk-hunting--Smut--Killbuck--The Horton Plains--A Second
Soyer--The Find--The Buck at Bay--The Bay--The Death--Return of Lost
Dogs--Comparative Speed of Deer--Veddah Ripped by a Boar--A Melee--Buck
at Black Pool--Old Smut's Ruse--Margosse Oil.

The foregoing description of sporting incidents closed my first visit to
Ceylon. I had arrived in the island to make a tour of the country and to
enjoy its sports; this I had accomplished by a residence of twelve