fect weapons in all respects, and exactly adapted for heavy game.
They are double-barrelled, No. 10 bores, and of such power in metal that
they weigh fifteen pounds each. I consider them perfection; but should
others consider them too heavy, a pound taken from the weight of the
barrels would make a perceptible difference. I would in all cases
strongly deprecate the two grooved rifle for wild sports, on account of
the difficulty in loading quickly. A No. 10 twelve-grooved rifle will
carry a conical ball of two ounces and a half, and can be loaded as
quickly as a smooth-bore. Some persons prefer the latter to rifles
for elephant-shooting, but I cannot myself understand why a decidedly
imperfect weapon should be used when the rifle offers such superior
advantages. At twenty and even thirty paces a good smooth-bore will
carry a ball with nearly the same precision as a rifle; but in a country
full of various large game there is no certainty, when the ball is
rammed down, at what object it is to be aimed. A buffalo or deer may
cross the path at a hundred yards, and the smooth-bore is useless; on
the other hand, the rifle is always ready for whatever may appear.

My battery consists of one four-ounce rifle (a single barrel) weighing
twenty-one pounds, one long two-ounce rifle (single barrel) weighing
sixteen pounds, and four double-barrelled rifles, No. 10 weighing
each fifteen pounds. Smooth-bores I count for nothing, although I have
frequently used them.

So much for guns. It may therefore be summed up that the proper battery
for Ceylon shooting would be four large-bored double-barrelled rifles,
say from No. 10 to No. 12 in size, but all to be the same bore, so as to
prevent confusion in loading. Persons may suit their own fancy as to
the weight of their guns, bearing in mind that single barrels are very
useless things.

Next to the 'Rifle' in the order of description comes the 'Hound.'

The 'elk' is his acknowledged game, and an account of this animal's size
and strength will prove the necessity of a superior breed of hound.

The 'elk' is a Ceylon blunder and a misnomer. The animal thus called is
a 'samber deer,' well known in India as the largest of all Asiatic deer.

A buck in his prime will stand fourteen hands high at the shoulder, and
will weigh 600 pounds, live weight. He is in colour dark brown, with a
fine mane of coarse bristly hair of six inches in length; the rest of
his body is covered with the same coarse