Round the Camp Fire. 165 



A particularly harmful period was that about twenty 

 years ago, when the * Express ' rifle, then in its in- 

 fancy, suddenly enabled men to inflict far greater loss on 

 wild animals than they had been capable of carrying out 

 with the less accurate weapons of a former day. It is well 

 known that a great deal of unsportsmanlike shooting 

 mere slaughter indeed was indulged in then, and up to 

 fairly recent times. The writer is acquainted with a case 

 where two officials, of the old school, spread destruction 

 abroad, in their own district, for many years, with dire 

 effect on the game, especially bison and sambar, many 

 hundreds of the latter being shot without distinction 

 as to sex or age. 



Such practices however have more light let in on 

 them nowadays, so we find in consequence that little 

 havoc of this sort is played with game in the present 

 time. 



In the vicinity of colonies of an inferior class of Indo- 

 European, we find a certain amount of promiscuous and 

 harmful shooting indulged in ; but it is seldom that 

 these depredations extend further than antelope, pig, 

 etc., for it is difficult for people of this kidney to get 

 into forests to any large extent, or wander far from the 

 railway. 



It should be remembered that the question of game- 

 destruction at present under discussion is that of India 

 generally, and is not intended to apply to any more or 

 less confined and favoured parts such as Kashmir 

 where, until a recent date, the European sportsman has 

 indeed been a recognizable factor in the diminution of 

 game. 



Taking the country as a whole, and speaking generally 

 therefore, it appears to be a well- based assumption that the 



