Several
Wild Buffaloes Were Drinking In The River Within A Short Distance Of Us;
But Thinking This A Likely Spot For Elephants, We Determined Not To
Disturb The Neighbourhood By Firing A Shot Until We Had First Explored
The Country.
After a walk of a couple of hours through fine open forest
and small bushy plains, we came to the conclusion that there were very
few elephants in the country, and we devoted ourselves to other game.
After a day or two spent in killing deer, a few wild buffaloes, and only
one elephant, I felt convinced that we should never find the latter, in
the dry state of the country, unless by watching at some tank at night.
We therefore moved our encampment inland about twenty-five miles from
Yalle. Here there is a large tank, which I concluded would be the resort
of elephants.
A long day's journey through a burning sun brought us to Sitrawelle.
This is a small village, about six miles inward from the sea-coast
village of Kesinde. Here the natives brought us plantains and buffalo
milk, while we took shelter from the sun under a splendid tamarind tree.
Opposite to this was a 'bo'-tree; *(very similar to the banian-tree)
this grew to an extraordinary size; the wide spreading branches covered
about half an acre of ground, and the trunk measured upwards of forty
feet in circumference. The tamarind-tree was nearly the same size; and I
never saw together two such magnificent specimens of vegetation. A few
paces from this spot, a lake of about four miles' circuit lay in the
centre of a plain; this was surrounded by open forests and jungles, all
of which looked like good covers for game. Skirting the opposite banks
of the lake, we pitched the tent under some shady trees upon a fine
level sward. By this time it was nearly dusk, and I had barely time to
stroll out and kill a peacock for dinner before night set in.
The next morning, having been joined by my friend, Mr. P. Braybrook,
then government agent of this district, our party was increased to
three, and seeing no traces of elephants in this neighbourhood, we
determined to proceed to a place called Wihare-welle, about six miles
farther inland.
Our route now lay along a broad causeway of solid masonry. On either
side of this road, stone pillars of about twelve feet in height stood in
broken, rows, and lay scattered in every direction through the jungle.
Ruined dagobas and temples jutted their rugged summits above the
tree-tops, and many lines of stone columns stood in parallel rows, the
ancient supports of buildings of a similar character to those of
Pollanarua and Anarajahpoora. We were among the ruins of ancient
Mahagam. One of the ruined buildings had apparently rested upon
seventy-two pillars. These were still erect, standing in six lines of
twelve columns; every stone appeared to be about fourteen feet high by
two feet square and twenty-five feet apart.
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