viii DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



untrammelled freedom. Or your quest may be for solitude 

 and rest and freedom from worry, or perhaps it should be 

 said major worries — minor worries you must expect in the 

 East. Whatever your object, it should be possible to 

 attain it in one or other of the great jungles of India. 



It is not proposed to write an Indian Baedeker. The 

 choice of locahty must be left to yourself. There are 

 some 245,612 square miles of Government Reserves and 

 other forest, and about 128,300 square miles of forest land 

 in the Native States and private ownership in the country. 

 There is room for all. That is room so long as your object 

 is not sport, i.e. sport concerned with the slaying of animals. 

 When such is desired much more trouble has to be taken 

 nowadays in the selection of one's jungle, and certain first- 

 hand knowledge is essential. 



The stay-at-home EngHshman often hears the Anglo- 

 Indian descanting at great length upon the disagreeables 

 of Indian hfe, and you may be sure that they do not lose 

 anything in the oft-repeated narration. The heat, the 

 wearying monotony of the rains in the monsoon period, the 

 malaria and mosquitoes, the " bugs " of all sizes and con- 

 ditions, the depressing, narrow life of the small up-country 

 Station, the constant transfers, the great expense of coming 

 " home," the customs of the country, so entirely at variance 

 with those of the West, the dilatoriness of the native, his 

 conservatism and all the rest of it. 



Granted that all these factors do detract from the 

 pleasure, ease and comfort (and pocket) of the members 

 of the Ruling Race. It was to make up for these drawbacks 

 that in the days of yore the salaries of official and non- 

 official alike were fixed on a scale equivalent to double the 

 amount received by holders of corresponding posts in Eng- 

 land. There was some meaning in the expression " Pagoda 

 tree " and " nabob " in those halcyon days — now, alas ! 

 gone to return no more. 



But there is another side to the question ! 



It is not all work in India ! We have not always the 

 heat or the rains with us ; nor even when they are present 

 are they necessarily always uppermost in our thoughts. 

 We are not always counting our rupees or grumbhng at 

 our lack of them, or saving them for that trip home ! One 

 could write of many pleasant hours passed amongst friends 

 in the Station. Of dinners and dances, gatherings at the 



