My reason for this was, that the elk invariably took to the jungle at this place, which proved it to be the easiest route.
This road, on completion, answered every expectation, connecting the two sides of the Hog's Back by an excellent path of about two miles, and debouching on the opposite side on a high patina peak which commanded the whole country.

Thus was the whole country opened up by this single path, and should an elk play his old trick and be off across the Hog's Back to Fort M'Donald river, I could be there nearly as soon as he could, and also keep within hearing of the bounds throughout the run.
I was determined to take the tent and regularly hunt up the whole country on the other side of the Hog's Back, as the weather was very bad at Newera Ellia, while in this spot it was beautifully fine, although very windy.
I therefore sent on the tent, kennel-troughs and pots, and all the paraphernalia indispensable for the jungle, and on the 31st May, 1852, I started, having two companions--Capt.

Pelly, Thirty-seventh Regiment, who was then commandant of Newera Ellia, and his brother on a visit.
It was not more than an hour and a half's good walking from my house to the high patina peak upon which I pitched the tent, but the country and climate are so totally distinct from anything at Newera Ellia that it gives every one the idea of being fifty miles away.
We hewed out a spacious arbor at the edge of the jungle, and in this I had the tent pitched to protect it from the wind, which it did effectually, as well as the kennel, which was near the same spot.

The servants made a good kitchen, and the encampment was soon complete.
There never could have been a more romantic or beautiful spot for a bivouac.

To the right lay the distant view of the low country, stretching into an undefined distance, until the land and sky appeared to melt together.