I soon discovered that a pack of thoroughbred foxhounds were not adapted to a country so enclosed by forest; some of the hounds were lost, others I parted with, but they are all long since dead, and their progeny, the offspring of crosses with pointers, bloodhounds and half-bred foxhounds, have turned out the right stamp for elk-hunting.
It is a difficult thing to form a pack for this sport which shall be perfect in all respects.

Sometimes a splendid hound in character may be more like a butcher's dog than a hound in appearance, but the pack cannot afford to part with him if he is really good.
The casualties from leopards, boars, elk and lost dogs are so great that the pack is with difficulty kept up by breeding.

It must be remembered that the place of a lost dog cannot be easily supplied in Ceylon.

Newera Ellia is one of the rare climates in Ceylon which is suited to the constitution of a dog.

In the low and hot climates they lead a short and miserable life, which is soon ended by a liver complaint; thus if a supply for the pack cannot be kept up by breeding, hounds must be procured from England at a great expense and risk.
The pack now in the kennel is as near perfection as can be attained for elk-hunting, comprising ten couple, most of whom are nearly thoroughbred fox-hounds, with a few couple of immense seizers, a cross between bloodhound and greyhound, and a couple of large wire-haired lurchers, like the Scotch deer-hound.
In describing the sport, I must be permitted to call up the spirits of a few heroes, who are now dead, and place them in the vacant places which they formerly occupied in the pack.
The first who answers to the magic call is 'Smut,' hero of at least 400 deaths of elk and boar.