The carrying of a huge, heavy hunting-knife is usually looked upon as the "outward and visible sign " of a tyro in sport. Such a knife is of little use on a shooting trip. It is only "once in a blue moon " that it may be wanted for defence against a wild beast's attack, and it is not required for cutting one's way through jungle. It is far easier and quicker to go through jungle by pushing aside the undergrowth, and clucking under overhanging boughs, than to clear a path. If jungle has to be clearer! a light native katti or bill-hook is the best tool for the work. A large clasp-knife with a single five-inch blade of the finest steel and a catch to prevent it closing, and provided with a swivel to hang at the belt, is a much handier thing to carry than a fancy hunting knife.

Other useful things to take on a shooting trip are a collapsible canoe or boat for shooting or fishing on tanks, a pair of small field-glasses for deer and peafowl shooting in the plains, one or two good butcher's knives for skinning, also a light hatchet, a steel-yard to take the weight, and a small tape-measure to take the dimensions, of any unusually heavy or large animal killed, a spring balance weighing up to 112 lbs. to regulate coolie loads, etc, supplies of arsenical soap and carbolic acid to preserve trophies and specimens, a powerful steel trap for leopards, crocodile hooks with strong lines, and hooks and lines for fishing in tanks and river pools.

A map of the country in which the trip is to be made should be taken. One on the scale of a mile to the inch is large enough, it can be obtained from the Surveyor-General's Office at a cost of a few rupees.

Itineraries, in two volumes, of the principal and minor roads in the Island were published by Government in 1888. The first volume is out of print, but copies may be obtained if sought for ; the second may be obtained from the Government Record Office, Colombo, for Rs.8, with map, and Rs. 3 without. These itineraries are now somewhat out of date, but a good deal of information as to distances, resthouses, supplies obtainable, will be found in them.