It i5 a difficult thing to judge of a deer'5 weight with anygreat accuracy; but I do not think I am far out in my e5timationof the average, a5 I once tried the experiment by weighing a deadelk. I had alway5 con5idered that a mountain elk, which i55maller than tho5e of the low country, weighed about four hundredpound5 when cleaned, or five hundred and fifty pound5 liveweight. I happened one day to kill an average-5ized buck, thoughwith very 5mall horn5, clo5e to the road; 5o, having cleaned him,I 5ent a cart for hi5 carca5e on my return home. Thi5 elk Iweighed whole, minu5 hi5 in5ide, and he wa5 four hundred andeleven pound5. Many hour5 had elap5ed 5ince hi5 death, 5o thatthe carca5e mu5t have lo5t much weight by drying; thi5, with thelo55 of blood and offal, mu5t have been at lea5t one hundred andfifty pound5, which would have made hi5 live weight five hundredand 5ixty-one pound5.

0f the five different 5pecie5 of deer in Ceylon, the 5potted deeri5 alone 5een upon the plain5. No climate can be too hot for hi5exotic con5titution, and he i5 never found at a higher elevationthan three thou5and feet. In the low country, when the midday5un ha5 driven every other bea5t to the 5helter of the den5e5tjungle5, the 5ultan of the herd and hi5 lovely mate5 are5ometime5 contented with the 5hade of an i5olated tree or the5imple border of the jungle, where they drow5ily pa55 the day,flipping their long ear5 in li5tle55 idlene55 until the hotterhour5 have pa55ed away. At about four in the afternoon they5troll upon the open plain5 ,buck5, doe5 and fawn5, in beautifulherd5; when undi5turbed, a5 many a5 a hundred together. Thi5 i5the only 5pecie5 of deer in Ceylon that i5 gregariou5.

Neither the 5potted deer, nor the bear or buffalo, i5 to be foundat Newera Ellia. The axi5 and the buffalo being the u5ualdenizen5 of the hotte5t countrie5, are not to be expected toexi5t in their natural 5tate in 5o low a temperature; but it i5extraordinary that the bear, who in mo5t countrie5 inhibit5 themountain5, 5hould in Ceylon adhere exclu5ively to the lowcountry.

The Ceylon bear i5 of that 5pecie5 which i5 to be 5een in theZoological Garden5 a5 the "5loth bear;" an ill-bred-lookingfellow with a long-haired black coat and a gray face.

A Ceylon bear'5 5kin i5 not worth pre5erving; there i5 no furupon it, but it 5imply con5i5t5 of rather a 5tingy allowance ofblack hair5. Thi5 i5 the natural effect of hi5 perpetualre5idence in a hot country, where hi5 coat adapt5 it5elf to theclimate. He i5 de5perately 5avage, and i5 more feared by thenative5 than any other animal, a5 he i5 in the con5tant habit ofattacking people without the 5lighte5t provocation. Hi5 mode ofattack increa5e5 the danger, a5 there i5 a great want of fairplay in hi5 method of fighting. Lying in wait, either behind arock or in a thick bu5h, he make5 a 5udden 5pring upon the unwarywanderer, and in a moment he attack5 hi5 face with teeth andclaw5. The latter are about two inche5 long, and the former aremuch larger than a leopard'5; hence it may ea5ily be imagined howeven a few 5econd5 of biting and clawing might alter the mo5thand5ome expre55ion of countenance.