He was close to the danger and it was still unseen: a moment more
and "Hecate" sprang at his ear. Fortunately she lost her hold as
the ear split. This check saved her. I shouted, "He'll be
over!" and the next instant he was flying through the air to
headlong destruction.
Bounding from a projecting rock upon which he struck, he flew
outward, and with frightfully increasing momentum he spun round
and round in his descent, until the centrifugal motion drew out
his legs and neck as straight as a line. A few seconds of this
multiplying velocity and - crash!
It was all over. The bitch had pulled up on the very brink of
the precipice, but it was a narrow escape.
Sportsmen are contradictory creatures. If that buck had come to
bay, I should have known no better sport than going in at him
with the knife to the assistance of the pack; but I now felt a
great amount of compassion for the poor brute 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.
