Newera
Ellia until I discovered it one day, accidentally, in following the
hounds.

A large tract of jungle-covered hill stretches away from the Moon
Plains at Newera Ellia toward the east, forming a hog's back of about
three and a half miles in length. Upon the north side this shelves
into a deep gorge, at the bottom of which flows, or rather tumbles,
Fort M'Donald river on its way to the low country, through
forest-covered hills and perpendicular cliffs, until it reaches the
precipitous patina mountains, when, in a succession of large cataracts,
it reaches the paddy-fields in the first village of Perewelle (guava
paddy-field). Thus the river in the gorge below runs parallel to the
long hog's back of mountain. This is bordered on the other side by
another ravine and smaller torrent, to which the Badulla road runs
parallel until it reaches the mountain of Hackgalla, at which place the
ravine deepens into the misty gorge already described.

At one time, if an elk crossed the Badulla road and gained the Hog's
Back jungle, both he and the hounds were lost, as no one could follow
through such impenetrable jungle without knowing either the distance or
direction.

"They are gone to Fort M'Donald river!" This was the despairing
exclamation at all times when the pack crossed the road, and we seldom
saw the hounds again until late that night or on the following day.
Many never returned, and Fort M'Donald river became a by-word as a
locality to be always dreaded.

After a long run one day, the pack having gone off in this fatal
direction, I was determined, at any price, to hunt them up, and
accordingly I went some miles down the Badulla road to the limestone
quarries, which are five miles from the Newera Ellia plain. From this
point I left the road and struck down into the deep, grassy valley,
crossing the river (the same which runs by the road higher up) and
continuing along the side of the valley until I ascended the opposite
range of hills. Descending the precipitous side, I at length reached
the paddy-fields in the low country, which were watered by Fort
M'Donald river, and I looked up to the lofty range formed by the Hog's
Back hill, now about three thousand feet above me. Thus I had gained
the opposite side of the Hog's Back, and, after a stiff pull lip the
mountain, I returned home by a good path which I had formerly
discovered along the course of the river through the forest to Newera
Ellia, via Rest-and-be-Th