GOORKHAS VERSUS TIMBER. 113 



season for hunting game. This would not merely add to their 

 contentment, but from the fact of their being accustomed to 

 using their own wits and weapons, and shifting for themselves 

 when out in the jungles, it would also conduce to their intelli- 

 gence and efficiency on active service. In the Dehra Doon, 

 the Goorkhas have, for sixty or seventy years, been in the 

 habit of wandering as they pleased in its forests, where they 

 could always pick up a deer as a help for feeding their 

 families, which, as I have said, they are encouraged to bring 

 with them from Nepal. Now, I am told this hunting privi- 

 lege has been virtually denied them by the forest department. 

 The consequence of this arbitrary measure which I know 

 has been, to say the least of it, much deplored by the Goorkhas 

 quartered there will probably be an increase in the difficulty 

 there always, more or less, has been in recruiting the already 

 limited Goorkha ranks, not to mention the many evils that may 

 accrue from the men being deprived of such healthy exercise 

 and instructive amusement in their leisure hours. And, after 

 all, what is the value of some sticks of timber, even though 

 barefooted shikarees could possibly injure them, which I very 

 much doubt, if they are to be conserved at the expense of los- 

 ing the services even of ever so few of such excellent soldiers ? 

 Why, a single company of Goorkhas is, in time of need, worth 

 more to the State than all the trees in the Dehra Doon forests. 



As the Goorkhali is of very independent character, and is 

 well paid and made much of in the army of his own country, 

 he will naturally become averse to either entering or remain- 

 ing in a foreign one if his tastes and usages are not equally 

 well considered therein. 



Trusting I may be excused for having made this digression 

 in favour of the gallant little men who were my companions 

 in arms and in wild sports for so many years, I will now 

 resume my original subject. 



Towards the end of October I left Shore with my recruits to 

 rejoin regimental headquarters in the Punjab. It was with 



H 



