who had met so terrible a fate. It did
not seem fair; and yet I would not have missed such a sight for
anything. Nothing can be conceived more terribly grand than the rush
of so large an animal through the air; and it was a curious
circumstance that within a few days no less than two bucks had gone
over precipices, although I had never witnessed one such an accident
more than once before.

Upon reaching the fatal spot, I, of course, found him lying stone dead.
He had fallen at least two hundred and fifty feet to the base of the
precipice; and the ground being covered with detached fragments of
rock, he had broken most of his bones, beside bursting his paunch and
smashing in the face. However, we cut him up and cleaned him, and,
with the native followers heavily laden, we reached the tent.

The following morning I killed another fine buck after a good run on
the patinas, where he was coursed and pulled down by the greyhounds;
but the wind was so very high that it destroyed the pleasure of
hunting. I therefore determined on another move--to the Matturatta
Plains, within three miles of my present hunting ground.

After hunting four days at the Matturatta Plains, I moved on to the
Elephant Plains, and from thence returned home after twelve days'
absence, having killed twelve elk and two red deer.

The animal known as the "red deer" in Ceylon is a very different
creature to his splendid namesake in Scotland; he is particularly
unlike a deer in the disproportionate size of his carcase to his length
of leg. He stands about twenty-six inches high at the shoulder and
weighs (live weight) from forty-five to fifty pounds. He has two sharp
tusks in the upper jaw, projecting about an inch and a half from the
gum. These are exactly like the lower-jaw tusks of a boar, but they
incline in the contrary direction, viz., downward, and they are used as
weapons of defence.

The horns of the red deer seldom exceed eight inches in length, and
have no more than two points upon each antler, formed by a fork-like
termination. This kind of deer has no brow antler. They are very fast,
and excel especially in going up hill, in which ground they frequently
escape from the best grey-hounds.

There is no doubt that the red-deer venison is the best in Ceylon, but
the animal itself is not generally sought after for sport. He gives a
most uninteresting run; never going straight away like a deer, but
doubling about over fifty acres of gro