ave done for any
reward, for fear of crocodiles, which abound in the tank. The ball had
struck the white mark exactly in the centre, which pleased these natives
exceedingly, and they returned in safety with the tail.

I have frequently tried these long shots since, but I never succeeded
again except once, and that was not satisfactory, as the elephant did
not die upon the spot, but was found by the natives on the following
day.

On my return to the village I took a shot-gun and strolled along the
banks of the lake. The snipe were innumerable, and I killed them till my
head ached with the constant recoil of the gun in addition to the
heat. I also killed several couple of ducks and teal in addition to
twenty-eight couple of snipe. This was the Paradise for sport at the
time of which I write. It had never been disturbed: but it has since
shared the fate of many other places.

The open forest in the vicinity of the lake abounded with deer. Grassy
glades beneath the shady trees give a park-like appearance to the scene,
and afford a delightful resort for the deer.

In strolling through these shady glades you suddenly arrive among the
ruins of ancient Pollanarua. The palaces are crumbled into shapeless
mounds of bricks. Massive pillars, formed of a single stone, twelve feet
high, stand in upright rows throughout the jungle here and there over an
extent of some miles. The buildings which they once supported have long
since fallen, and the pillars now stand like tombstones over vanished
magnificence. Some buildings are still standing; among these are two
dagobas, huge monuments of bricks, formerly covered with white cement,
and elaborately decorated with different devices. These are shaped like
an egg that has been cut nearly in half, and then placed upon its base;
but the cement has perished, and they are mounds of jungle and rank
grass which has overgrown them, although the large dagoba is upwards of
a hundred feet high.

A curious temple, formed on the imperishable principle of excavating
in the solid rock, is in perfect preservation, and is still used by the
natives as a place of worship: this is presided over by a priest. Three
large images of Bhudda, carved out of solid rock, occupy the positions
in which he is always represented; that in the recumbent posture is
fifty-six feet long, cut from one stone.

I was strolling through these ruins when I suddenly saw a spotted doe
feeding among the upright pillars before me