264 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



fact that a very reasonable profit can be made out of this 

 valuable asset. 



The native of India has never made any claim to the 

 ownership of game animals (mammals) or birds, since he 

 has never possessed it. He only asks that his crops should 

 be protected against their depredations, and legislation 

 which will do this will never be resented. 



That steps have been taken in the right direction is all 

 to the credit of the Administration, but a study of the 

 present position renders it obvious that many of the diffi- 

 culties have not as yet been faced by the authorities. I 

 propose to allude to these in the succeeding sections. It 

 will first, however, be necessary to consider what the 

 Game Sanctuary really is and what its formation aims at. 



The Game Sanctuary^ 



The idea of the Game Sanctuary was a natural outcome of 

 the indiscriminate slaughter to which wild animals have at 

 all times and in all countries been subjected by man. So 

 long as it was man imperfectly armed against the animal 

 with its natural sagacity or fierceness to protect it, 

 conditions were equal, or in favour of the animal, and 

 there was no reason for intervention. From the day, 

 however, of the introduction of the breech-loader and the 

 repeater and a whole host of perfectly built weapons of 

 every kind, enabling man to kill with comparative ease and 

 certainty, the odds were against the animal and the question 

 of affording some degree of protection to the game of a 

 country became of paramount importance ; and, curiously 

 enough, the question became most vital in the more un- 

 civilized, uninhabited, and wilder portions of the globe. 

 Such shooting grounds were open to one and all, just as for 

 centuries the shooting in India had been open, with the 

 result that the modern rifle soon threatened the extinction 

 of all game. That modern conditions have rendered this 

 quite feasible the two well-known and oft-quoted instances 

 afforded by the practically extinct American bison and the 

 extinct quagga of South Africa sufficiently illustrate. 



In India we have come within measurable distance of 



^ For a list of the Game Sanctuaries of the country, both in British 

 India and the Native States at that time, see my paper on "Game Sanc- 

 tuaries, etc.," Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., pp. 33-46 (191 2). 



