The pot held six gallons, and the whole elk, except
a few steaks, was cut up and alternately boiled down in sections.
The flesh was then cut up small for the pack, the marrowbones
reserved for "master," and the soup was then boiled until it had
evaporated to the quantity required. A few green chilies, onions
in slices fried, and a little lime-juice, salt, black pepper and
mushroom ketchup, and - in fact, there is no rise thinking of it,
as the soup is not to be had again. The fire crackled and blazed
as the logs were heaped upon it as night grew near, and lit up
all the nooks and corners of the old cave. Three beds in a row
contained three sleepy mortals. The hounds snored and growled,
and then snored again. The servants jabbered, chewed betel,
spit, then jabbered a little more, and at last everything and
everybody was fast asleep within the cave.
The next morning we had an early breakfast and started, the
village people marching off in good spirits with the loads. I was
now en route for Bertram's patinas, which lay exactly over the
mountain on the opposite side of the river. This being
perpendicular, I was obliged to make a great circuit by keeping
the old Newera Ellia path along the river for two or three miles,
and then, turning off at right angles, I knew an old native trace
over the ridge. Altogether, it was a round of about six miles,
although the patinas were not a mile from the cave in a straight
line.
The path in fact terminates upon the high peak, exactly opposite
the cave, looking down upon my hunting-ground of the day before,
and on the other side the ridge lie Bertram's patinas.
The extreme point of the ridge which I had now gained forms one
end of a horse -shoe or amphitheatre; the other extremity is
formed by a high mountain exactly opposite at about two miles'
distance. The bend of the horse-shoe forms a circuit of about
six miles, the rim of which is a wall of precipices and steep
patina mountains, which are about six or seven hundred feet above
the basin or the bottom of the amphitheatre. The tops of the
mountains are covered with good open forest, and ribbon-like
strips descend to the base. Now the base forms an uneven shelf
of great extent, about two thousand feet above the villages. This
shelf or valley appears to have suffered at some remote period
from a terrible inundation. Landslips of great size and
innumerable deep gorges and ravines furrow the bottom of the
basin, until at length a principal fissure carries away the
united streams to the paddy-fields below.
The cause of this inundation is plain enough. The basin has been
the receptacle for the drainage of an extensive surface of
mountain. This drainage has been effected by innumerable small
torrents, which have united in one general channel through the
valley. The exit of this stream is through a narrow gorge, by
which it descends to the low country. During the period of heavy
rains a landslip has evidently choked up this passage, and the
exit of the water being thus obstructed, the whole area of the
valley has become a lake. The accumulated water has suddenly
burst through the obstruction and swept everything before it.
The elk are very fond of lying under the precipices in the strips
of jungle already mentioned. When found, they are accordingly
forced to take to the open country and come down to the basin
below, as they cannot possibly ascend the mountain except by one
or two remote deer-runs. Thus the whole hunt from the find to
the death is generally in view.
>From every point of this beautiful locality there is a
boundless and unbroken panorama of the low country.
Unfortunately, although the weather was perfectly fine, it was
the windy season, and a gale swept across the mountains that
rendered ears of little use, as a hound's voice was annihilated
in such a hurricane This was sadly against sport, as the main
body of the pack would have no chance of joining the finding
hound.
However, the hounds were unkenneled at break of day, and, the
tent being pitched at the bottom of the basin, we commenced a
pull up the steep patinas, hoping to find somewhere on the edge
of the jungles.
"There's scent to a certainty! - look at old Bluebeard's nose
upon the ground and the excited wagging of his stern. Ploughboy
notices it - now Gaylass they'll hit it off presently to a
certainty, though it's as cold as charity. That elk was feeding
here early in the night; the scent is four hours old if a minute.
There they go into the jungle, and we shall lose the elk, ten to
one, as not another hound in the pack will work it up. It can't
be helped; if any three hounds will rouse him out, those are the
three."
For a couple of hours we had sat behind a rock, sheltered from
the wind, watching the immense prospect before us. The whole
pack were lying around us except the three missing hounds, of
whom we had seen nothing since they stole away upon the cold
scent.
That elk must have gone up to the top of the mountains after
feeding, and a pretty run he must be having, very likely off to
Matturatta plains; if so, good-bye to all sport for to-day, and
the best hounds will be dead tired for to-morrow.
I was just beginning to despair when I observed a fine large buck
at about half a mile distance, cantering easily toward us across
an extensive flat of table-land. This surface was a fine sward,
on the same level with the point upon which we sat, but separated
from us by two small wooded ravines, with a strip of patina
between them.
