190 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



funds at the disposal of the Club, has to be exercised in 

 choosing the sites of the small fishing huts, of which a few 

 were in existence. Although we were usually under canvas 

 when on a fishing trip, the huts were a great convenience for 

 members who wished to run out for a night or two without 

 going to the trouble of taking out camp paraphernalia ; as 

 also for non-district members who came from a distance to 

 spend a ten days' leave on these lovely rivers amidst 

 scenery that could scarcely be surpassed. Glorious days these 

 were passed thus on the river. On the occasion in question 

 the hot September sun burnt all the skin off my arms, knees — 

 we wore khaki shorts — neck and face, raising great and 

 exceedingly painful yellow blisters. My year and a half's 

 absence had made me soft, but the subsequent fortnight's 

 painful morning and evening anointing with glycerine by 

 my bearer was fully worth the ideal time we had of it. 



We did not see much game, however, in the jungles. 

 Nothing to what would have been a certainty at the end of 

 the rains in the old days. 



On our way back to camp on the last day I made some 

 remark to the mahout about the curious absence of the 

 large quantities of animals which at this season of the year 

 could certainly have been found here a few years ago. 

 "Oh, sahib, the Gurkhas were here last month," was the 

 reply. " Hov/ many ? " " From fifteen to a score," the 

 mahout answered. That explained matters which subse- 

 quent investigations in following years were able to confirm. 



This Gurkha question was not a new one, nor indeed was 

 the case of the troops generally throughout the country, 

 where shooting and the fauna was in question. But the 

 Gurkha is the most typical case as instancing the harm 

 which can be done, unintentionally done one would hope, by 

 the grant of rights and pre-emptions which can only result 

 in the extinction of the thing granted. Shooting rights in 

 the jungles in the neighbourhood of their cantonments were 

 originally granted to the Gurkha regiments when they were 

 first settled in their present cantonments. This was an 

 inducement to recruiting since the Gurkha is a great hunter. 

 At the time the rights were granted the jungles swarmed 

 with game and no one bothered their heads about the 

 possibility, nay, probability, of this game decreasing to 

 such an extent that it would come perilously near extermina- 

 tion in these parts. And yet this is exactly what has hap- 



