Every Stone, Every Bush
Or Tree Or Tuft Of Grass, Is Noted As A Cover For An Advance, And The
Body Being Kept In A Direct Line With Each Of These Objects, You
Approach Upon Hands And Knees From Each Successive Place Of Shelter Till
A Proper Distance Is Gained.
The stalking is the most exciting sport in
the world.
I have frequently heard my own heart beat while creeping up
to a deer. He is an animal of wonderful acuteness, and possessing the
keenest scent; he is always on the alert, watching for danger from his
stealthy foe the leopard, who is a perfect deer-stalker.
To kill spotted deer well, if they are tolerably wild, a person must be
a really good rifle shot, otherwise wise he will wound many, but seldom
bag one. They are wonderfully fast, and their bounding pace makes them
extremely difficult to hit while running. Even when standing they must
be struck either through the head, neck, or shoulder, or they will
rarely be killed on the spot; in any other part, if wounded, they will
escape as though untouched, and die a miserable death in solitude.
In narrating long shots that I have made, I recount them as bright
moments in the hours of sport; they are the exceptions and not the rule.
I consider a man a first-rate shot who can ALWAYS bag his deer standing
at eighty yards, or running at fifty. HITTING and BAGGING are widely
different. If a man can always bag at the distance that I have named he
will constantly hit, and frequently bag, at extraordinary ranges, as
there is no doubt of his shooting, and, when he misses, the ball has
whizzed somewhere very close to the object; the chances are, therefore,
in favour of the rifle.
The deer differ in character in various parts of Ceylon. In some places
where they are rarely disturbed they can be approached to within thirty
or forty paces, in which case a very moderate shot can easily kill them;
but it is better sport when they are moderately wild. The greatest
number of deer that I ever saw was in the south-eastern part of Ceylon,
in the neighbourhood of Pontane and Yalle. The whole of this country is
almost uninhabited, and accordingly undisturbed. Yalle is the nearest
town of importance, from which a good road, lined on either side with
cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees, extends as far as Tangalle, fifty
miles. A few miles beyond this village the wild country begins, and
Hambantotte is the next station, nearly ninety miles from Yalle. The
country around Hambantotte is absolutely frightful-wide extending plains
of white sand and low scrubby bushes scattered here and there; salt
lakes of great extent, and miserable plains of scanty herbage,
surrounded by dense thorny jungles. Notwithstanding this, at some
seasons the whole district is alive with game. January and February are
the best months for elephants and buffaloes, and August and September
are the best seasons for deer, at which time the whole country is burnt
up with drought, and the game is forced to the vicinity of Yalle river
and the neighbouring pools. In the wet season this district is nearly
flooded, and forms a succession of deep marshes, the malaria from which
is extremely unhealthy. At this time the grass is high, and the
elephants are very numerous.
When I was in this part of the country the drought was excessive; the
jungle was parched, and the leaves dropped from the bushes under the
influence of a burning sun. Not a cloud ever appeared upon the sky, but
a dazzling haze of intense heat spread over the scorched plains. The
smaller streams were completely dried up, and the large rivers were
reduced to rivulets in the midst of a bed of sand.
The whole of this country is a succession of flat sandy plains and low
jungles contiguous to the sea-coast. The intense heat and the glare of
the sun rendered the journey most fatiguing. I at length descried a long
line of noble forest in the distance, and this I conjectured to be near
the river, which turned out to be the case; we were soon relieved from
the burning sun by the shade of as splendid a forest as I have ever
seen. A few hundred yards from the spot at which we had entered, Yalle
river rolled along in a clear stream. In the wet season this is a rapid
torrent of about 150 yards in width, but at this time the bed of the
river was dry, with the exception of a stream of about thirty paces
broad, which ran directly beneath the bank we were descending.
An unexpected scene now presented itself. The wide bed of the river was
shaded on either side by groves of immense trees, whose branches
stretched far over the channel; and not only beneath their shade, but in
every direction, tents formed of talipot leaves were pitched, and a
thousand men, women, and children lay grouped together; some were
bathing in the river, some were sitting round their fires cooking a
scanty meal, others lay asleep upon the sand, but all appeared to be
congregated together for one purpose; and so various were the castes and
costumes that every nation of the East seemed to have sent a
representative. This was the season for the annual offerings to the
Kattregam god, to whose temple these pilgrims were flocking, and they
had made the dry bed of Valle river their temporary halting-place. A few
days after, no less than 18,000 pilgrims congregated at Kattregam.
I was at this time shooting with my friend, Mr. H. Walters, then of the
15th Regiment. We waded up the bed of the river for about a mile, and
then pitched the tent under some fine trees in the open forest. Several
wild buffaloes were drinking in the river within a short distance of us;
but thinking this a likely spot for elephants, we determined not to
disturb the neighbourhood by firing a shot until we had first explored
the country.
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