442 THE INDIAN FOREST SURVEY. [Nov. 



some time afterwards. Bat a much worse case was that of the 

 Jarhwal man-eater ; this tiger had killed a very large number, some 

 300 or 400 it was said, of woodcutters within the area which had 

 to be surveyed. The superintendent was aware tliat if he lost one 

 of his men he would probably be obliged to abandon the work, and 

 he took all means in his power to accomplish its destruction ; but 

 although the trail was twice followed, and the bodies of men who 

 had been carried off were discovered, the tiger was not bngged. At 

 last, as none of the survey party were touched, an idea gained 

 ground among the men that the tiger bore them no ill-wall, and they 

 considered themselves perfectly safe if they could satisfy him of 

 their identity, which they were content to do by carrying aloft in a 

 cleft bamboo an old envelope from the superintendent's wastepaper 

 basket ! 



The natives present a strange mixture of bravery and cowardice ; 

 they do not hesitate to express fear when they feel it, and do not 

 seem to think that to be afraid is anything to be ashamed of, but at 

 the same time they frequently perform acts that appear recklessly 

 brave. An old man of seventy, armed with a tulwar, has been seen 

 hunting about in the tall grass for a wounded tiger which was lying 

 concealed close by him, and he had ultimately to be forced into a 

 position of safety on tlie back of an elephant. On another occasion 

 a bear had taken up his quarters in a dense part of tlie forest, and 

 had killed several bamboo-cutters ^\■ho had unwittingly invaded his 

 retreat ; a man who had just been mauled by him insisted in joining 

 a passing Englishman wlio went in search of the bear, and could not 

 be persuaded to keep behind the rifle, but advanced boldly into the 

 beast's lair, anxious to take a leading part in the retribution which 

 shortly overtook him. The servant of a noted sportsman in the 

 North-Western Provinces once proposed to his master that he should 

 walk past a dense piece of cover in which a wounded tiger was 

 lying, in order that the animal might be induced to spring out into 

 the open and thus afford a good shot ! 



Much may be done with such men, not only in the defence of our 

 frontiers from foreign aggression, but also in more peaceable work 

 such as that which is now treated of. The experience of the natives 

 of India gained in the Forest Survey Department, has been that, with 

 skilful training and under judicious management, almost anything 

 may be done with them. From the very beginning they were 

 taught that accuracy was of far more importance than rapidity of 

 work or anything else ; if a native surveyor thinks that his oflicer 

 is not very particular, and would not be sorry to show a large out- 

 turn of work even at the sacrifice of something in the way of 

 accuracy, he can develop the most astonishing powers of " fudging." 



