fty to
eighty feet in height, and of a proportionable thickness. Often these
artificial pieces of water are ten or a dozen miles in circumference,
and of great depth. They are usually full of crocodiles, and are
frequented by wild-fowl of all sorts. Our evening meal was preparing,
when one of our Moors came in with the announcement that a herd of
buffaloes were in the neighbourhood feeding close to the lake, and that
we might have a fair chance of trying our powers on them. Delighted at
the prospect, Nowell and I seized our rifles, and mounting our horses,
rode off towards the spot indicated.

"I will let you go by yourselves, young gentlemen. After a long day's
journey, I do not feel that my love of sport would induce me to go
through more fatigue," observed Mr Fordyce.

Solon, of course, was very anxious to accompany me, but the Moor said he
would interrupt the sport, so very unwillingly I left him in our camp.
Nowell had already had some practice in buffalo as well as in elephant
shooting and other wild sports in Ceylon. He explained to me that it is
necessary to be very cautious in approaching a herd; sometimes they will
pretend to fly, and all of a sudden turn round and charge their pursuers
with the most desperate fury. We were both armed with double-barrelled
rifles and hunting-knives, with, as I believed, a good supply of powder
and bullets, and so we thought ourselves a match for any wild beasts in
the world. The scenery was very beautiful. There was a wide extent of
plain covered with richly green grass, and here and there sprinkled with
clumps of trees, under which herds of deer crouched in the shade, while
others browsed around. Promontories of various shapes, some wooded, and
some with only a single palm-tree on them, ran out into the bright lake,
at the further end of which rose lofty hills covered thickly with shrubs
to their very summits, the bluest of blue mountains appearing one beyond
the other in the far distance. As we rode along we put up a number of
wild-fowl, teal, and ducks; and the deer, as soon as they saw us,
scampered off to a distance, so that we could not have a shot at them
had we wished it. The ground now became too uneven for our horses, so
Nowell proposed that we should leave the Moor in charge of them, while
we walked on towards the spot where we expected to find the buffaloes.

"I am quite up to the work to be done, and it will be much more
creditable to attack them by