He insisted upon our taking breakfast with him, and he accordingly commenced his preparations.

Borrowing one of our hunting-knives, two of his men gave chase to a kid and cut its head off.
Half an hour afterwards we were eating it in various forms, all of which were excellent.
We had thus travelled over forty-four miles of country from Minneria without killing a single head of game.

Had we remained a week in the district through which we had passed so rapidly, we must have had most excellent sport.

All this was the effect of being hurried for time.
In the neighbourhood of Doolana I had killed many elephants some years ago, and I have no doubt we could have had good sport at this time; but V.Baker's leave was so fast expiring, and the natives' accounts of the distance through the Veddah country were so vague, that we had no choice except to push straight through as fast as we could travel, until we should arrive on the Batticaloa path.
We took leave of our friend the Rhatamahatmeya; he had provided us with good trackers, who were to accompany us through the Veddah country to the 'Park'; but I now began to have my doubts as to their knowledge of the ground.

However, we started, and after skirting the Doolana tank for some distance, we rode five miles through fine forest, and then arrived on the banks of the Mahawelle river.