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.
