PREFACE 15 



am of those unappreciative people who believe 

 that a man may be a hero even though he has 

 never watched a football match or shot a pigeon 

 out of a trap. At the same time, there can be 

 very little doubt that those who have the 

 courage and endurance to go into the jungle 

 after tiger, or into the Himalaya after wild 

 sheep, learning, as they go, the virtue of 

 dogged patience and the arts of woodcraft, 

 stalking, intercourse with native tribesmen and 

 getting over difficult country in quick time 

 these men must be valuable assets to their 

 country in the hour of their country's need. 

 While, therefore, sportsmen should be sub- 

 jected to fair and reasonable restraint, made to 

 pay for their amusement, debarred from killing 

 more than a strictly limited number of beasts, 

 and utterly prohibited from shooting the 

 females of some and both sexes of others, it 

 would be a bad day that should see the sport 

 of big game hunting unconditionally forbidden 

 or, worse still, losing its attraction for English- 

 men abroad. This book does not pretend to 

 offer information as to camping requisites or 

 rifles, though hints as to season and locality 

 will here and there be found. Many adven- 



