INTRODUCTION xi 



in India, and which, to a degree probably unsurpassed in 

 any other country in the world, assuredly pervades these 

 vast tracts of wild country which cover so great a part of 

 India. For in many of these wild tracts history has been 

 made in the past forgotten history. Hidden in these 

 pathless wastes the remains of cities and towns and evidences 

 of a high civilization in a remote past are to be found now 

 represented by crumbling walls or columns or mere heaps 

 of stones and bricks covered up by a victorious vegetation, 

 the homes of many and often the crueller members of the 

 jungle folk. 



The fascination of such spots is readily understood, and 

 the mind easily weaves spells and calls up pictures and 

 phantoms of that long dead and buried past. 



India's jungles have then many aspects apart from the 

 usually accepted and inaccurately portrayed one of the 

 uninitiated. 



The notes embodied in this book, jotted down for the most 

 part under very varying conditions in camp and under the 

 influence of these great jungles, are an attempt to reproduce 

 one side, that of the sportsman and naturalist, of the many 

 fascinations of the life passed amongst them. An endeavour 

 is also made to point out how much they will lose of interest 

 and health-giving enjoyment if protection is not afforded 

 to some, at least, of their most interesting inhabitants. 



For if sport or the study of the fauna be your object in 

 visiting the jungles, you will find matters in a very different 

 state from what they were a score of years ago. 



With the wonderful improvement and cheapening in 

 price of the modern rifle, and with the great development 

 in railways and opening out of roads, not to mention the 

 more recent introduction of the motor-car, extraordinary 

 facilities (compared to former times) have been placed 

 within the power of the sportsman, and what were formerly 

 famous shooting jungles are now within easy fifteen days 

 of London, and their former denizens know them no more. 



The destruction of game has proceeded apace with the 

 increase of facilities for attack, and some of the finest of 

 Indian game animals are now within measurable distance 

 of extinction. Protection in various forms has been started 

 in different parts of the country, chiefly in the Government 

 Forest Reserves and in some of the Native States. But 

 the steps taken for the country as a whole are still far from 



