The Country In Which He Is Hunted Is In The Mountainous Districts Of
Ceylon.
Situated at an elevation of 6,200 feet above the sea is Newera
Ellia, the sanatorium of the island.
Here I have kept a pack and hunted
elk for some years, the delightful coolness of the temperature (seldom
above 66 degrees Fahr.) rendering the sport doubly enjoyable. The
principal features of this country being a series of wild marsh, plains,
forests, torrents, mountains and precipices, a peculiar hound is
required for the sport.
A pack of thoroughbred fox-hounds would never answer. They would pick up
a cold scent and open upon it before they were within a mile of their
game. Roused from his morning nap, the buck would snuff the breeze, and
to the distant music give an attentive ear, then shake the dew from his
rough hide, and away over rocks and torrents, down the steep mountain
sides, through pathless forests; and woe then to the pack of
thoroughbreds, whose persevering notes would soon be echoed by the rocky
steeps, far, far away from any chance of return, lost in the trackless
jungles and ravines many miles from kennel, a prey to leopards and
starvation! I have proved this by experience, having brought a pack of
splendid hounds from England, only one of which survived a few months'
hunting.
The hound required for elk-hunting is a cross between the fox-hound and
blood-hound, of great size and courage, with as powerful a voice as
possible.
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