BOOKS.

BAKER'S RIFLE AND HOUND IN CEYLON.* Tox sportsman in describing his sports generally does it with fluency and vigour, if not with a touch of imagination. It may be that the strength of constitution, activity of muscle, high ani- mal spirits, and enduring energy, which are bodily requisites for a first-class Nimrod, have their counterparts in the mind ; or the fresh open-air character of the scenes among which they carry on their pursuit may impart some of its own fresh life to sportsmen, especially as their descriptions are transcribed direct from nature, or at least founded on fact. Be the cause what it may, there is no doubt of the matter. Since it has become a fashion to publish sporting adventures, that class of literature may be rated among the richest, from Forbes, Harris, and Gordon Cumming, down to Nimrod and his followers in the sporting magazines. Faults the writers may have, and plenty of them ; but there is vigour, life, movement about them, even when these qualities are dashed by effort or affectation.

Among this class of authors Mr. W. S. Baker is entitled to a very high place. He is an enthusiast ;n his pursuit; he possesses remarkable activity, strength, endurance, and hardihood, which have been improved by training and exercise to something like the power of a wild huntsman; and though these qualities may be called physical, they are necessary to produce the adventures to be described; a sportsman-author combines the qualities which Sallust ascribed to the Greeks and Romans, since he must do the deeds before he can describe them. Mr. Baker has also a loving relish of the beauties of nature, a keen eye for the antecedents of wild animals, and the coolness to observe them when face to face in a deadly struggle. He has also graphic powers of no mean order, whether as regards landscape, its living denizens, or the sportman's actions. Some of his descriptions of scenery and wild creatures, may vie with anything Wilson or Audubon could pro- duce, either in lifelike delineation or apparent truth. Then Mr. Baker had, if not altogether a new field, a very fresh one ; for although field-sports constituted a part of Major Forbes's work on Ceylon, yet the attention of that various-minded and accomplished writer was directly engaged upon many other sub- jects ; and upwards of thirteen years have elapsed since his book came before the world. The Isle of Cinnamon must in a certain sense yield to South and Central Africa, for thousands of years a land of mystery and wonder. Ceylon contains no giraffe, no hippo- potamus, no " lion and unicorn fighting for the crown," no striped zebra, or variety of antelopes ; and so far Harris and Gordon Cumniitig have some advantage in their game. Ceylon, however, has not only a larger and more gifted species of elephant, but it has its "rogue elephants "—creatures which combine almost the sagacity of man with the malice of a dmmon, and call into play all the skill and resources of the elephant-huntsman. The buffalo of Ceylon is a fierce, powerful, and plucky beast, with a head almost im- penetrable, and requiring great nicety. and craft in those who at- tack, as Mr. Baker found to his cost in his 'p.rentice days. Then the wild boar and the bear have their haunts in Ceylon ; the boar of enormous size and strength, to assail whom with dogs and a hunting-knife is a task of no small danger, the slightest contre- temps on the part of hound or huntsman ending in serious rip- ping wounds or death. The Ceylon bear is an equally tough cus- tomer, though in a different way ; but so rarely met with, from its nocturnal habits and the difficulty of discovering its haunts, that Mr. Baker seems only once to have got a shot at it, and then the bear came off free if not scatheless. South Africa is also beaten by the alligators of Ceylon ; terrible monsters, with whom our sportsman oftener than once had a close shave. In Ceylon, too, the boa-constrictor grows to an enormous size : Monk Lewis, we think, wrote an illustrative tale about it ; and though his natural history was somewhat at fault, he rightly selected the locality. Then there is elk-hunting, with a fair field and no favour ; the game being run to bay by the hounds, and killed with a hunting- knife by the sportsmen. The axis or spotted deer, perhaps the most beautiful of the whole tribe, is continually met with ; and though often shot as an exercise of skill, or when the necessity of pot puts aside sport, yet coursing by greyhounds, rare both in strength and speed, is the mode. After subjects of venery like these, it is needless to enumerate such game as pea-fowl, jungle- fowl, water-fowl—any of which would furnish first-rate sport at home.

Whether Mr. Baker, taking advantage of the pleasant overland trip which he recommends to others, went to Ceylon merely to exercise his vocation, does not appear; but he visited the island twice. On the first oocasion, in 1847, he remained there about a year. On his second visit he resided for a longer time ; forming a

• The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon. By 8. W. Baker, Esq. With numerous. Illustrations, printed in Colours, and Engravings on Wood. Published by Long- man and Co.

pack of elk-hounds, or the fox-hounds were useless except for the purpose of crossing; and all eventually perished. Of his more striking exploits and adventures he gives a narrative, in part classified and in part chronological ; that is, the particular kinds of sport are frequently grouped together,—as buffalo-shoot- ing, elephant-shooting ; but sometimes the order of events is fol- lowed, several varieties of sport being mingled together. With the sporting accounts are sketches of the scenery, antiquities, and modes of life of the natives, and of the Europeans at the hills, as well as several "characters" among the native huntsmen. These things, however, are incidental ; all in The Byte and the Hound in Ceylon is subordinate to sport. The bulk and strength of the elephant impress one with the idea of danger, but it strikes us that buffalo-shooting is more risk fill sport. The head is harder—useless to aim at, unless to stun the enemy while you " bolt "; his sullen malignity seems to have more of murderous intent; and if not swifter, or so powerful, he is more active, and quite strong enough to settle you. The difference— and it may turn out to be everything—is, that the buffalo has less dash and decision. If the elephant determines to charge, he charges at once ; the buffalo pauses, and may be kept in check by the human eye. Our sportsman's first adventure among the buffaloes had nearly been his last. He had wounded one, which he left his brother to despatch, while he himself pursued another that took to some water.

" Running round the borders of the creek as fast as I could, I arrived at the opposite side on his intended landing-place just as Isis black form reared from the deep water and gained the shallows, into which I had waded knee- deep to meet him. I now experienced that pleasure as he stood sullenly eye- ing me within fifteen paces. Poor stupid fellow ! I would willingly, in my ignorance, have betted ten to one upon the shot, so certain weal of his death in another instant.

" I took a quick but steady aim at his chest, at the point of connexion with the throat. The smoke of the barrel passed to one side ; there he stood; he had not flinched, he literally had not moved a muscle. The only change that had taken place was in his eye ; this, which had hitherto been merely sullen, was now beaming with fury ; but his form was as motionless as a statue. A stream of blood poured from a wound within an inch of the spot at which I had aimed ; had it not been for this fact, I should not have be- lieved him struck.

"Annoyed at the failure of the shot, I tried him with the left-hand barrel at the same hole. The report of the gun echoed over the lake; but there he stood as though he bore a charmed life ; an increased flow of blood from the wound and additional lustre in his eye were the only signs of his being struck.

"I was now unloaded, and had not a single ball remaining. It was now his turn. I dared not turn to retreat, as I knew he would immediately charge, and we stared each other out of countenance.

" With a short grunt he suddenly sprang forward; but fortunately, as I did not move, be halted : he had, however, decreased his distance, and we now gazed at each other within ten paces. I began to think buffalo-shooting somewhat dangerous, and I would have given something to have been a mile away, but ten times as much to have had my four-ounce rifle in my hand. Oh, how I longed for that rifle in this moment of suspense! Unloaded, with- out the power of defence, with the absolute certainty of a charge from an overpowering brute, my hand instinctively found the handle of my hunting- knife,—a useless weapon agaliest such a foe.

" Knowing that B. was not aware of my situation at the distance which separated us (about a mile), without taking my eyes from the figure before me, 1 raised my hand to my mouth and gave a long and loud whistle : this was a signal that I knew would be soon answered if heard. "With a stealthy step, and another short grunt, the bull again advanced a couple of paces towards me. lie seemed aware of my belplessless, and he was the picture of rage and fury, pawing the water, and stamping violently with his fore-feet.

"This was very pleasant ! I gave myself up for lost ; but, putting as fierce an expression into my features as I could possibly assume, I stared hopelessly at my maddened antagonist.

"Suddenly a bright thought flashed through my mind. Without taking my eyes off the animal before me, I put a double charge of powder down the right-hand barrel, and tearing off a piece of my shirt, I took all the money from my pouch, three shillings in sixpenny pieces and two anna pieces, which I luckily had with me in this small coin for paying Mains. Quickly making them Into a rouleau with the piece of rag, I rammed them down the barrel; and they were hardly well home before the bull again sprang forward. So quick was it that I had no time to replace the ramrod, and I threw it in the water, bringing my gun on full cock in the same instant. However, he again halted, being Slew within about seven paces from me; and we again gazed fixedly at each ether, but with altered feelings on my part. I had faced him hopelessly with an empty gun for more than a quarter of an hour, which seemed a century. I now had a charge in my gun, which I knew if reserved till he was within a foot of the muzzle would certainly floor him ; and I awaited his onset with comparative carelessness, still keeping my eyes opposed to his gaze. 'At this moment I heard a splashing in the water behind me, accompanied by the hard breathing of something evidently distressed. The next moment I heard B.'s voice. He could hardly speak for want of breath, having run the whole way to my rescue ; but I could understand that he had only one barrel loaded and no bullets left. I dared not turn my face from the buffalo, but I cautioned B. to reserve his fire till the bull should be close into me, and then to aim at his head.

"The words were hardly uttered, when, with the concentrated rage of the last twenty minutes, he rushed straight at me. It was the work of an in- stant. B. fired without effect. The horns were lowered, their points were on either side of me, and the muzzle of the gun barely toughed his forehead when I pulled the trigger, and three shillings' worth of small change rattled into his bard head. 'Down he went, and rolled over with the suddenly checked momentum of his charge. Away went B. and I as fast as our heels would carry us, through the water and over the plain, knowing that he was not dead but only stunned. There was a large fallen tree about half .a mile from us, whose whitened branches rising high above the ground offered a tempting asylum. To this we directed our flying steps, and after a run of a hundred yards, we turned and looked behind us. He had regained hia feet and was following us slowly. We now experienced the difference of feeling between hunting and being hunted, and fine sport we must have afforded him.

"On he came, but fortunately so stunned by the collision with her Ma- jesty's features upon the coin which he had dared to oppose, that he could only reel forward at a slow canter. By degrees, even this pace slackened, and he fell. We were only too glad to be able to reduce our speed likewise ; but we had no sooner stopped to breathe, than he was again up and after us. At length, however, we gained the tree ; and we beheld him with satisfaction stretched powerless upon the ground, but not dead, within two hundred yards of us. " We retreated under cover of the forest to the spot at which we had left the horses, fortunately meeting no opposition from wild animals ; and we shortly arrived at the village, at which we took up our quarters, vowing vengeance on the following morning for the defeat that we had sustained."

Successful elephant-shooting, when the gigantic animal is struck down suddenly by a shot through the brain and dies instantly, is not very interesting ; the sympathies, moreover, being less with the sportsman than the game, which often seems the lesser brute of the two. The elephant-hunter, however, like Othello, may meet with his hairbreadth 'scapes, and generally from a "rogue," a mis- anthropical animal, which separates from the herd, and does wan- ton and wicked mischief to the crops and even to the villagers—so these latter say.

" We had slipped, and plunged, and struggled over this distance, when we suddenly were checked in our advance. We had entered a small plot of deep mud and rank grass, surrounded upon all aides by dense rattan jungle. This stuff is one woven mass of hooked thorns ; long tendrils, armed in the same manner, although not thicker than whip-cord, wind themselves round the parent canes, and form a jungle which even elephants dislike to enter : to man these jungles are perfectly impervious. " Half way to our knees in mud, we stood in this small open space of about thirty feet by twenty. Around us was an opaque screen of this im- penetrable jungle ; the lake lay about fifty yards upon our left, behind the thick rattan. The gun-bearers were gone ahead somewhere, and were far in advance. We were at a stand-still. Leaning upon my long rifle, I stood within four feet of the wall of jungle which divided us from the lake. I said to B., The trackers are all wrong, and have gone too far. I am convinced that the elephants must have entered somewhere near this place.'

" Little did I think that at that very moment they were within a few feet of us. B. was standing behind me on the opposite side of the small opening, or about seven yards from the jungle. " I suddenly heard a deep guttural sound in the thick rattan within four feet of me : in the same instant the whole tangled fabric bent over me, and bursting asunder, showed the furious head of an elephant, with uplifted trunk, in full charge upon me.

" I had barely time to cock my rifle; and the barrel almost touched him as I fired. I knew it was in vain, as his trunk was raised. B. fired his right-hand barrel at the same moment, without effect from the same cause. I jumped on one side, and attempted to spring through the deep mud : it was of no use ; the long grass entangled my feet, and in another instant I lay sprawling in the enraged elephant's path within a foot of him. In that moment of suspense I expected to hear the crack of my own bones as his massive foot would be upon me. It was an atom of time. I heard the crack of a gun ; it was B.'s last barrel. I felt a spongy weight strike my heel, and, turning quickly heels over head, I rolled a few paces and regained my feet. That last shot had floored him just as he was upon me ; the end of his trunk had fallen upon my heel. Still he was not dead, but he struck at me with his trunk as I passed round his head to give him a finisher with the four-ounce rifle, which I had snatched from our solitary gun-bearer.

" My back was touching the jungle from which the rogue had just charged, and I was almost in the act of firing through the temple of the still struggling elephant when I heard a tremendous crash in the jungle behind me similar to the first, and the savage scream of an elephant. I saw the ponderous fore-leg cleave its way through the jungle directly upon me. I threw my whole weight back against the thick rattans to avoid him, and the next moment his foot was planted within an inch of mine. His lofty head was passing over me in full charge at B., who was unloaded, when, holding the four-ounce rifle perpendicularly, I fired exactly under his throat. I thought he would fall upon me and crush me ; but this shot was the only chance, as B. was perfectly helpless.

"A dense cloud of smoke from the heavy charge of powder for the mo- ment obscured everything. I had jumped out of the way the instant after firing. The elephant did not fall, but he had his death-wound ; the ball had severed his jugular, and the blood poured from the wound. He stopped ; but, collecting his stunned energies, he still blundered forward towards B. He, however, avoided him by running to one side ; and the wounded brute staggered on through the jungle. We now loaded the guns : the first rogue was quite dead, and we followed in pursuit of rogue number two. We bawd distant shots, and upon arriving at the spot we found the gun-bearers.°Phey had heard the wounded elephant crashing through the jungle, and therhad given him a volley just as he was crossing the river, over which, tie herd had escaped in the morning. They described the elephant as pkggc y help- less from his wound, and they imagined that he had falleig in the thick bushes on the opposite bank of the river. As I before mentioned, we could not cross the river on account of the torrent ; but in a fewidays it subsided, and the elephant was found lying dead in the spot when they supposed he had fallen.

" Thus happily ended the destruction of this notable pair : they had proved themselves all that we had heard of them, and by their cunning dodge of hiding in the thick jungle they had nearly made sure of us."

There may be less to strike the imagination in elk-hunting than in elephant-shooting, but it really seems a nobler sport. As it is for the most part followed on foot, the animal powers of the hunts- man are severely tried. In manufactures and machinery there is nothing heroic, and with a machine like a modern rifle a brute stands little chance from a dead shot. The elk first contends with dogs, individually weaker than himself, several of whom are often killed ; and the huntsman has to finish him at close quarters by a cool eye and a steady hand. Here is an elk at bay.

" Hardly had I run a hundred yards, when I heard the ringing of the bay and the deep voice of Smut, mingled with the roar of the waterfall, to which I had been running parallel. Instantly changing my course, I was in a few moments on the bank of the river just above the fall. There stood the buck at bay in a large pool about three feet deep, where the dogs could only ad- vance by swimming. Upon my jumping into the pool he broke his bay,

and, dashing through the dogs, appeared to leap over the verge of the cats_ met, but in reality he took to a deer-path which skirted the steep side of the wooded precipice. So steep was the inclination that I could only follow on his track by clinging to the stems of the trees. The roar of the waterfall, now only a few feet on my right hand, completely overpowered the voices of the dogs wherever they might be ; and I carefully commenced a perilous descent by the aide of the fall, knowing that both dogs and elk must be some- where before me. So stunning was the roar of the water, that a cannon might have been fired without my hearing it. I was now one-third of the way down the fall, which was about fifty feet deep. A. large flat rock pro- jected from the side of the cliff, forming a platform of about six feet square, over one corner of which the water struck and again bounded downwards. This platform could only be reached by a narrow ledge of rock, beneath which, at a depth of thirty feet, the water boiled at the foot of the fall. upon this platform stood the buck, having gained his secure but frightful position by passing along the narrow ledge of rock. Should either dog or man at- tempt to advance, one charge from the buck would send them to perdition, as they would fall into the abyss below. This the dogs were fully aware of; and they accordingly kept up a continual bay from the edge of the cliff; while I attempted to dislodge him by throwing stones and sticks upon him from above. Finding this uncomfortable, he made a sudden dash forward, and, striking the dogs over, away he went down the steep sides of the ravine, followed once more by the dogs and myself. " By clinging from tree to tree and lowering myself by the tangled creep. ere, I was soon at the foot of the first fall, which plunged into a deep pool on a flat plateau of rock bounded on either side by a wall-like precipice.

" This plateau was about eighty feet in length, through which the water flowed in two rapid but narrow streams from the foot of the first fall towards a second cataract at the extreme end. This second fall leaped from the centre of the ravine into the lower plain.

" When I arrived on this fine level surface of rock, a splendid sight pre- sented itself. In the centre of one of the rapid streams the buck stood at bay, belly-deep, with the torrent rushing in foam between his legs. His mane was bristled up, his nostrils were distended, and his antlers were lowered to receive the dog who should first attack him. I happened to have a spear on that occasion, eo that I felt he could not escape, and I gave the baying dogs a loud cheer on. Poor Cato ! it was his first elk, and he little knew the dan- ger of a buck at bay in such a strong position. Answering with youthful ardour to my holloa, the young dog sprang boldly at the elk's face ; but, caught upon the ready antlers, he was instantly dashed senseless upon the rocks. Now for old Smut, the hero of countless battles, who, though pluck to the back-bone, tempers his valour with discretion. " Yoick to him, Smut! and I jumped into the water. The buck made a rush forward ; but at that moment a mass of yellow hair dangled before his eyes as the true old dog hung upon his cheek. Now came the tug of war— only one seizer ! The spring had been so great, and the position of the buck was so secure, that the dog had missed the ear and only held by the cheek. The elk in an instant saw his advantage, and, quickly thrusting his sharp brow antlers into the dog's chest, he reared to his full height and attempted to pin the apparently fated Smut against a rock. That had been the last of Smut's days of prowess had I not fortunately had a spear. I could just reach the elk's shoulder in time to save the dog. After a short but violent struggle, the buck yielded up his spirit. He was a noble fellow, and pluck to the ast.,, "Travellers see strange things," and when a traveller is com- bined with a sportsman we naturally expect something out of the common way. Mr. Baker tells us he has underdone everything; and strange escapes do happen, as we see every day in railway ac- cidents. Some of our sportsman's long shots, too, are said to be matched by the Minis rifle. Still there are singular occurrences in " the Rifle." This tenacity of life, or at least of motion, is another strange tale; though not stranger perhaps than is the ease of eels.

" I was obliged to carry the bird myself, as my two gun-bearers were stag- gering under the weight of the deer, and the spare guns were carried by my tracker. We were proceeding slow) along, when the tracker, who was in advance, suddenly sprang back, and pointed to some object in the path. It was certainly enough to startle any man. An enormous serpent lay coiled in the path. His head was about the size of a very small cocoa-nut, divided lengthways, and this was raised about eighteen inches above the coil. His eyes were fixed upon us, and his forked tongue played in and out of his mouth with a continued hiss. Aiming at his head, I fired at him with a double-barrelled gun, within four Paces, and blew his head to piecea. He appeared stone dead ; but upon pulling him by the tail, to stretch him out at full length, he wreathed himself in convulsive coils, and lashing himself out in full length, he mowed down the high grass in all directions. This obliged me to stand clear, as his blows were terrific, and the thickest part of his body was as large as a man's thigh. I at length thought of an expedient for se- curing him. Cutting some sharp-pointed stakes, I waited till he was again quiet, when I suddenly pinned his tail to the ground with my hunting-knife, and thrusting the pointed stake into the hole, I drove it deeply into the ground with the butt of my rifle. The boa made some objection to this, and again he commenced his former muscular contortions. I waited till they were over; and having provided myself with some tough jungle rope, (a spe- cies of creeper,) I oncemore approached him, and, pinning his throat to the ground with a stake, I tied the rope through the incision, and the united exertions of myself and three men hauled him out perfectly straight. I then drove a stake firmly through his throat, and pinned him out. He was fifteen feet in length; and it required our united strength to tear off his skin, which shone with a variety of passing colours. On losing his hide he tore away from the stakes; and although his head was shivered to atoms, and he had lost three feet of his length of neck by the ball having cut through this part, which separated in tearing off the skin, still he lashed out and writhed in frightful convulsions, which continued until I left him, bearing as my trophy his scaly hide. These boas will kill deer, and by crushing them into a sort of sausage, they are enabled by degrees to swallow them. There are many of these vermin in Ceylon; but they are seldom seen, as they generally wan- der forth at night. There are marvellous stories of their size, and my men assured me that they had seen much larger than the snake now mentioned; to me he appeared a horrible monster."

Although Mr. Baker's volume is full of interest and adven- tures, some of them of a breathless kind, it would have borne cur- tailment. This is in a measure owing to the slaughtering character of parts of the book. Mere killing without an object, and without any visible necessity, may have some excuse when the blood is up and the sportsman excited by the concomitants ; but tales of con- tinuous and safe slaughter of elephants and buffaloes read ill—as bad as a fashionable battue ; with this disadvantage, that we have more s'mpathy with the "half-reasoning" elephant than with small birds. Perhaps there may be too much of repetitilm in the more commonplace adventures. The long story of a Vetting ex- earsion with Mr. Stuart Wortley and others, beginning at page 323, might have been advantageously shortened, perhaps alto- gether omitted, and only the few more striking incidents retained.