Although I knew the whole country by one route, from Minneria to the north of the Veddah country, we had now diverged from that route to visit this particular spot, which I had never before shot over.

We passed on through beautiful open country interspersed with clumps of jungle, but without one large tree that would shade the tent.
A single-roofed tent exposed to the sun is perfectly unbearable, and we continued to push on in the hope of finding a tree of sufficient size to afford shelter.
Some miles were passed; fresh tracks of elephants and all kinds of game were very numerous, and the country was perfection for shooting.
At length the open plains became more contracted, and the patches of jungle larger and more frequent.

By degrees the open ground ceased altogether, and we found ourselves in a narrow path of deep mud passing through impenetrable thorny jungle.

Nevertheless our guide insisted upon pushing on to a place which he compared to that which we had unfortunately left behind us.

Instead of going two miles, as we had originally intended, we had already ridden sixteen at the least, and still the headman persisted in pushing on.