them get well out, and then crawled towards a large anthill, which appeared to be close to them; it was tedious work, and we were not sorry when we gained it, but the herd was still fifty yards distant, without a bit of cover large enough to conceal a dog, much less a man. There was nothing for it therefore but to run straight at them, trusting to the chance of their being in a bad humour and inclined to fight. This, however, was far from their intention, for the moment we appeared they wheeled round and made for the nearest jungle. This caused us to separate, W trying to cut them off, while I followed close in their wake, every now and then firing a shot behind the ear as I got a chance, though without doing much damage. They had almost gained the covert when W's guns began to speak; the first two shots without effect, but the next two bringing down an elephant each. This was the last we saw of them, for when once in the jungle (which was very thick) we found it too dark for shooting. While returning to camp, W stalked and killed a spotted buck.

No sooner had evening closed in than elephants again came out on the plain, roaring at intervals during the night, but none remained at daybreak, and, although we persevered till midday, we could make nothing of their whereabouts. I therefore took a long shot at a deer, and bagged him, cooked the liver for breakfast, and returned to Trincomalee.

A few days later, W-- again joined me twenty-five miles up the coast, when we set out for Terai, and thence, shooting as we went, moved to Tennamarawaddi, but the rain was so incessant that we had very little sport.

All around Tennamarawaddi are magnificent plains which swarm with deer. The evening after our arrival we got close to a herd of 200, among which were more than sixty antlered bucks, and as the plain was intersected by small watercourses fringed with bushes, we got within easy shot, and lay still for some time, watching them as they fed and sported about unconscious of danger. It was a strange wild scene: far as the eye could reach stretched the level plain, in parts lightly timbered, and watered by small, sluggish streams, which took their course to the Kokolay lake, a part of whose gleaming water came close up to us. Several of the bucks were lying down, lazily scratching their backs with their long antlers; others were coquetting with the young hinds; and some were fighting, the clashing of whose antlers and their bellowing might have been heard a mile off. Such was the scene we at last rudely broke in upon with our rifles, putting an end for ever to the loves and hates of two old stags, whose antlers were a temptation we could not resist.

The rain now came down, if possible more heavily than before, and flooded the whole country, putting tracking out of the question. We therefore wandered about at hazard, finding only a solitary bear, who was so occupied trying to break up the old stump of a tree that he heard nothing of our approach until a shot from my rifle rolled him

over.

Of these bears I have before spoken as the most savage animals in Ceylon, and consequently more dreaded by the natives than any others. As both natives and bears are exceedingly fond of honey, they often come in collision, when the natives frequently lose their lives, and in

variably carry the marks of the encounter to the grave. There is scarcely a village on the eastern and western coasts in which natives are not to be found with marks of the most fearful wounds, all received in encounters with bears. On their honey-hunting expeditions the natives carry only a light axe, a gourd to hold the honey, and a short, tough stick, which latter, if attacked by a bear, they put against his paws, and, on his seizing it and trying to wrench it from them, they hold fast and then belabour him about the head with the axe. Except in this honey season they are seldom found moving about during the day, for their feeding time, like that of the elephant, is principally at night, when they wander forth to drink, and roam about the open plains. The most certain way of bagging them is to find out their drinking place (easily discernible from their tracks), throw up a slight screen of earth like a Russian rifle-pit close to it, stick some small branches in the parapet, and then take post behind it a little before dusk. This is by far the surest way to get a shot, but by no means the most pleasant, particularly if you are at all thin-skinned, for the mosquitoes almost devour you.

All these bears are marked on the breast with a horseshoe, like an old cock partridge; should you therefore meet them in the daytime do not be in too great a hurry to fire, but let them come quite close and wait until they rise up on their hindquarters to hug, then fire into the middle of the horseshoe, and he is yours to a certainty-it is almost instant death. If only wounded do not follow him too closely, for the speed with which they come round and into you is quite marvellous.

As the rain continued to fall in torrents, we retraced our steps to Commandamotty, intending to return to Trincomalee, but the whole country for three miles on both sides of Kallooar was like a vast lake, and we were therefore obliged to keep to the village. Having a very · powerful horse with me, I mounted him barebacked and made an attempt to reach the margin of the river, more for the purpose of seeing it in flood than with any idea of being able to cross, and was certainly well repaid for my trouble. The sight was strangely dreary. No matter which way you looked, wood and water only were to be seen, while through the midst of all rolled the red waters of the river, bearing along with them to the sea huge trees which they had swept away in their resistless course; at one moment heaving their topmost branches high out above the waters, to submerge them again the next and cast up in their place.the gnarled and twisted roots.

Three days did the waters keep us prisoners; they then began to subside, and we determined on trying to cross in a small canoe, leaving the horses behind, to follow when the current should be less swift. It was ticklish work even for a boat, for the instant the current caught us it whirled us away like a flash of lightning and carried us far down before we gained the still waters on the other side. On reaching Terai village, we found the whole of the people in commotion about the fate of four of their number, who had been cut off from the village some days previously by the sudden rising of the waters, and were starving for want of food. It appeared that these four men had set out with only one day's rice to watch some paddy-fields on the other side of a small river called the "Kandikerte-Aar," that the floods had come down the same night and prevented their return, and that they were literally starving.

Unpacking, therefore, a long coil of light but strong cotton rope which we had brought for the express purpose of passing rivers with, I changed my white flannel shirt for a brown one, to be less conspicuous in the water (for the river though comparatively small was noted for alligators), and taking a native to act as guide and carry the rope, I shouldered a gun and set out.

The river was distant about a mile, but so heavy had been the rains that the waters covered the country to within 300 yards of the village; we therefore waded on, sometimes up to our middles and sometimes to our chests. On reaching the fringe of forest which marked the river's course, we found natives perched in almost every tree, and, although they had been there for hours, not one had made the slightest attempt either to succour their starving friends or devise any means for doing so. Certainly the river was not pleasant to look at, for its waters were rushing past with fearful rapidity, but among so many some surely might have tried to do something; but no!-there they sat, chattering to each other, chewing betel, inwardly restless or why were they there? but outwardly quiet and resigned. However, as I had come to work and not to speculate upon the apathetic character of natives, I had better do something before evening closed in; and yet I could not bring myself to the task. It was not that I feared drowning—but the alligators; the place bore such an ugly name as having heard the deathshriek of more than one wretched native. A thousand times I wished I had never come, but felt that, as I had, it would never do to turn back without trying to save them. Tying, therefore, one end of the coil round my left shoulder, I gave the coil itself to a native and made him carry it up to the top of one of the highest trees, with directions to pay out, little by little, as I swam, and on no account to allow it to be slack enough to belly in the water. Having ascertained that he thoroughly understood me, I fired the gun across the water to scare away any alligators which might be lurking about, and then, moving a little further up the bank, plunged in. The current caught and swept me away like a leaf, but I continued striking steadily out, and found myself nearing the other side, when all at once there was a strain upon my arm, then a sharp jerk, and then a dead pull under water-the stupid fellow had dropped the best part of the coil out of his hand. I had no time to be frightened, for it pulled me under directly, and, instead of slackening away more, he began pulling in as fast as he could, so that he would inevitably have drowned me had I not managed to slip the rope my arm and get clear, when I at once swam back; but what with fright and the quantity of water I had swallowed I had had enough, and, declining any further trial, left the poor wretches to their fate. That night, however, the river fell, and they got across early the next morning; and never shall 1 forget their wan and emaciated appearance as they entered the village.

from

It was natural to suppose that such an escape from death by starvation would have been a warning never again to cross a river in the rainy season for the purpose of watching paddy-fields without more than one day's provisions; but it was not, for that same evening another batch crossed to take their turn at watching, and on my inquiring how many days' provisions they had taken, was told "one day's rice!" So much for fatalism and laziness. Whether they also suffered I know not, for

we left shortly after daybreak and reached Cutchivelly to breakfast, where W- left me and cantered on into Trincomalee.

That evening I killed a deer and a peacock, and the next morning found the track of a herd of elephants, which I followed for seven hours without once getting near them; but, on entering some fine grassy glades which led to a large tank, an elk jumped up, and I knocked him over.

These elk are the same as those in the hill country, only larger, and are very shy and wary, always retiring to the very thickest jungles at the first dawn of light, and never leaving them until it is too dark to shoot, when they come forth and feed upon the open plains, where you will hear them calling to each other with their sharp, hoarse, startling bark, all the night long. The best way, therefore, in the low country to obtain possession of their fine antlers is to watch a drinking place at night in the same way as for bears. You do, it is true, often meet them in the jungles while following elephants, and hear them dart suddenly off, but it is very seldom that you see or get a shot at them.

The weather being again wretchedly bad I gave up all idea of looking for yesterday's herd, and set off for Coombropitty, where I halted to breakfast under the shade of some magnificent old tamarind trees.

While chatting with the natives a buffalo-keeper came in, and told us he had heard elephants roaring during the night close to a couple of large isolated rocks which stood one on the top of the other; so, as the rain very obligingly cleared off, I set out to look for them. We soon found their tracks close to the rocks, and other signs also, which proved most unmistakably that they were not far off, and, pushing on a little further, distinctly heard the flap of an ear. They were moving round the base of a small circular hill, and as the wind was very baffling, blowing in eddies round it, they scented us and rushed off into the thick thorny jungle, into which I followed them at full speed. As soon, however, as they found themselves pursued, the rearmost elephant came round and charged furiously into me, but I killed him with the first shot. On again after the others, and eaught them up in about 400 yards, when again the nearest turned and charged with right goodwill, screaming outrageously, and making the sticks fly before him; but, letting him come close, I killed him also. To lay hold of another gun and dash on again in pursuit was but the work of a moment, and I was soon running close to a large female, with two half-grown calves by her side. On my shouting at her, "Dah, dah, endah!" she also turned and charged furiously, but the first barrel brought her down. Up she got again and made off, when I gave her another shot without effect. Tuvarqua, tuvarqua condon, sourrekè, sourrekè !" (A gun, give me a gun, quick, quick!), and I was again close behind her, shouting as before. Round she came and straight at me, and I gave her both barrels, but only turned her. She ran a few yards further, then made up her mind to fight, and once more came on; but a fresh gun was handed quickly and I killed her. Having now only one barrel left, I reloaded the guns and followed the others, but they had got too far, so that after an hour's work I gave them up. At seven o'clock the same evening I was in Trincomalee and at dinner with W-—.

(To be continued.)

REMINISCENCES

OF A COCKNEY.

BY FORWARD.

No. XII.

FLAT-CATCHING.

How swift the tide of life glides by! It seems but a few years past when, in the hey-day of youth and the world before me, I came and went at my pleasure, and thought not of the morrow. "Carpe Diem" was my motto, and I feared not for the frosts of age, or anticipated that my manhood might fall into decay, and I might see the time when death itself might be deemed a boon. Since then I have passed through many stirring scenes, and had my full share of weal and woe. I have watched prattling infancy ripen into youth, that the shock might be the greater when the fell reaper should gather them into his garner, and the children whom death has spared are amongst the chief solaces of him who once thought not of trial or sympathy. But that time is long past, and experience has taught the truth of the old saying, that a man, in passing through the world, must look out for "more kicks than kelps, and more kelps than bawbees !" And blessed is the man who, on looking back into the vista of a past life, has been enabled to say, "I have been more able to give than compelled to receive." I have watched my acquaintances and kindred dwindle away by the efflux of time; I have viewed the desires of my manhood vanish, one by one, away in the distance; I have outlived my nearest and dearest, and now I sometimes draw them around me (as it were) by indulging in the reminiscences of those who once were tangible, and find a delight in thinking over the past, and feel a deep sense of gratitude that I have been spared even to this hour.

Amongst the scenes of my youth I vividly recall to my mind's eye the actors in the little interlude I am about to describe, and will narrate how a celebrated pigeon shot, one well known in the purlieus of the celebrated Red House, set himself to work to draw a fiver out of me, which eventually resulted in his catching a Tartar.

Some thirty years ago the names of Mann, Bloodsworth, Groom, and others, were as well known by the frequenters of "trap matches" as Chifney, Robinson, Day, and other riders of their day, were familiar to visitants of Newmarket or of Epsom. Battersea, and its then-celebrious Red House, was the constant resort of these worthies, although they sometimes, like erratic planets, gladdened the eyes of the inhabitants of other localities. The former of these celebrated shots was at this period in the stage of decline, and he who once was the crack shot of his day was beginning now to lose that close intimacy between the finger and the eye which is so essential to the perfection of shooting. Having independent property, and still being fond of the sport, he was always anxious to knock up a match with any tyro who would gratify him, and generally reaped the rewards of his past experience. The two latter were in the very zenith of their fame, and there was a constant rivalry between them. Many matches between these shots were made by their respective supporters, with varied results, and there was scarcely a