SPORT IN AN INDIAN FOREST RESERVE. 125 



ever, that they will in time form real forests and be 

 very beneficial to the country. All over India these 

 reserves form natural strongholds for the game, who 

 are not only safe there from native guns, but even 

 from disturbance by cattle and their guardians. I 

 have even seen it stated in Indian papers that these 

 reserves account for the large increase of tigers in 

 some districts, and I think that this is very likely 

 to be the case. 



Having, then, obtained a favourable report as to 

 the chances of getting something to shoot, and 

 induced three others of the garrison to promise to 

 accompany me, I proceeded to make the necessary 

 arrangements. In England the idea of furnishing 

 an empty house for a couple of days would strike a 

 householder with horror. In India one contemplates 

 the idea of sending out tables, chairs, beds and 

 bedding, baths, and even cooking utensils with 

 equanimity, the result of residence in a country where 

 every man has his tent, as in England he has his 

 umbrella. It was consequently only necessary to give 

 the order that we were going to such and such a 

 place for so many days and the thing seemed to 

 arrange itself. On the actual day of departure we 

 were, perhaps, a little short of glass and plate, but 

 hardly sufficiently so to show that the furniture for 

 a house had departed early that morning. 



As the sun's rays decreased in intensity our horses 

 were brought round and we mounted. At the same 

 time our body servants, carrying those endless parcels 

 that a native servant never will dispense with, started 



