introduce
as first-rate hounds, but as no jealousy will be occasioned by their
omission, I shall be contented with those already named.

Were I to recount the twentieth part of the scenes that I have witnessed
in this sport, it would fill a volume, and become very tedious. A few
instances related will at once explain the whole character of the sport,
and introduce a stranger to the wild hunts of the Ceylon mountains.

I have already described Newera Ellia, with its alternate plains and
forests, its rapid streams and cataracts, its mountains, valleys, and
precipices; but a portion of this country, called the Horton Plains,
will need a further description.

Some years ago I hunted with a brother Nimrod, Lieutenant de Montenach,
of the 15th Regiment, in this country; and in two months we killed
forty-three elk.

The Horton Plains are about twenty miles from Newera Ellia. After a walk
of sixteen miles through alternate plains and forests, the steep ascent
of Totapella mountain is commenced by a rugged path through jungle the
whole way. So steep is the track that a horse ascends with difficulty,
and riding is of course impossible. After a mile and a quarter of almost
perpendicular scrambling, the summit of the pass is reached, commanding
a splendid view of the surrounding country, and Newera Ellia can be seen
far beneath in the distance. Two miles farther on, after a walk through
undulating forest, the Horton Plains burst suddenly upon the view as
you emerge from the jungle path. These plains are nearly 800 feet higher
than Newera Ellia, or 7,000 feet above the sea. The whole aspect of
the country appears at once to have assumed a new character; there is a
feeling of being on the top of everything, and instead of a valley among
surrounding hills, which is the feature of Newera Ellia and the adjacent
plains, a beautiful expanse of flat table-land stretches before the eye,
bounded by a few insignificant hill-tops. There is a peculiar freedom in
the Horton Plains, an absence from everywhere, a wildness in the thought
that there is no tame animal within many miles, not a village, nor hut,
nor human being. It makes a man feel in reality one of the 'lords of the
creation' when he first stands upon this elevated plain, and, breathing
the pure thin air, he takes a survey of his hunting-ground: no
boundaries but mountain tops and the horizon; no fences but the trunks
of decayed trees fallen from old age; no game laws but strong l