These Paths Would Never
Be Known To Europeans Were It Not For The Distant Runs Of The
Hounds, In Following Which, After Some Hours Of Fatiguing
Jungle-Work, I Have Come Upon A Path.
The notches on the
treestems have proved its artificial character, and by following
its course I have learnt the country.
There is not a path, stream, hill, or plain, within many miles of
Newera Ellia, that I do not know intimately, although, when the
character of the country is scanned by a stranger from some
mountain-top, the very act of traversing it appears impossible.
This knowledge has been gained by years of unceasing hunting, and
by perseveringly following up the hounds wherever they have gone.
From sunrise till nightfall I have often ploughed along through
alternate jungles and plains, listening eagerly for the cry of
the hounds, and at length discovering portions of the country
which I had never known to exist.
There is a great pleasure in thus working out the features of a
wild country, especially in an island like Ceylon, which, in
every portion, exhibits traces of former prosperity and immense
population. Even these uninhabited and chilly regions, up to an
elevation of seven thousand feet, are not blank pages in the book
of Nature, but the hand of man is so distinctly traced that the
keen observer can read with tolerable certainty the existence of
a nation long since passed away.
As I before mentioned, I pitched my settlement on the verge of
the highland, at the eastern extremity of the Newera Ellia plain,
where the high road commences a sudden descent toward Badulla,
thirty-three miles distant.
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