with trout, and now affords a liberal supply of that palatable fish to
the residents.

Not far away, on the Fort McDonald River, there is a grand waterfall,
with a plunge of three hundred perpendicular feet into a dark and
narrow chasm. The river approaches this point over a long succession
of wild, swirling, and foaming cataracts, reminding one of the rapids
above Niagara Falls, though far inferior in breadth and the body of
water which they convey. The hoarse anthem and echo accompaniment of
the McDonald Falls, when heard for the first time, are truly
awe-inspiring.

One has not far to go in the surrounding mountain region to find the
haunts of the wild elephants. They are still to be met with in
considerable numbers, their capture being considered the great
achievement of the chase among hunters of large game. From here
Hindustan has drawn its supply of these animals for many centuries.
The elephant rarely breeds in servitude while domesticated for the use
of man, but in its wild state is a prolific animal, otherwise Ceylon
would long since have been cleared of them. The mother elephant
carries her infant twenty-two months, and after birth suckles it for
two years. The female does not attain her maturity until she is
fifteen years old; the male in his twentieth year. The mother elephant
gives birth to but one calf at a time; twins have never been known.
Small herds range these hills to a height of six thousand feet, where
the nights are often frosty and the cold quite severe. Though they are
natives of tropical regions, this animal seems to be but little
affected by the cold, always avoiding, when it is possible, the direct
rays of the sun. This peculiarity is noticeable in them even when they
are exhibited in our cold northern climate. Unless aroused by the
hunters and driven from deep, cool coverts in the dense forests, the
elephant remains hidden during the daytime. Their roaming for forage
and water, like that of most wild animals, is altogether nocturnal.
Their sustenance is principally the leafage of young shoots of trees,
the wild fig being their favorite. The tender roots of the bamboo
also form a large source of food supply. Rice, however, is the
elephant's choice above all other esculents, and sometimes a small
herd will devastate a whole plantation in a single night. The planters
generally build a bamboo fence about their rice-fields in the
districts liable to be visited by these animals. This would at