After Having Ridden About Twenty Miles, The Last Tight Of Which Had Been
Through Alternate Forest And Jungle, We Arrived At A Small Plain Of Rich
Grass Of About A Hundred Acres:
This was surrounded by forest.
Unfortunately, the nights were not moonlight, or we could have killed a
deer, as they came out in immense herds just at dusk.
We luckily bagged
a good supply of snipe, upon which we dined, and we reserved our tins.
of meat for some more urgent occasion.
Nov. 26.--All vestiges of open country had long ceased. We now rode for
seventeen miles through magnificent forest, containing the most
stupendous banian trees that I have ever beheld. The ebony trees were
also very numerous, and grew to an immense size. This forest was
perfectly open. There was not a sign of either underwood or grass
beneath the trees, and no track was discernible beyond the notches in
the trees made at some former time by the Veddah's axe. In one part of
this forest a rocky mountain appeared at some period to have burst into
fragments; and for the distance of about a mile it formed the apparent
ruins of a city of giants. Rocks as large as churches lay piled one upon
the other. forming long dark alleys and caves that would have housed
some hundreds of men.
The effect was perfectly fairylike, as the faint silver light of the
sun, mellowed by the screen of tree tops, half-lighted up ,these silent
caves.
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