BULLET AND SHOT 



to try for the Cashmere stag, who then facilitates 

 the sportsman's search for him by "calling." 



It is a sad fact that all over India game is 

 rapidly decreasing in numbers, and this is due 

 entirely to the destruction wrought amongst them 

 by natives, not for sport, but as a means of gain. 



The sportsman's aim is to obtain the finest 

 specimens which he can secure of each species, 

 and he may, and often does, work hard for days 

 together without firing his rifle. He in no 

 appreciable way affects the numbers of the game, 

 though, of course, in localities much frequented by 

 his class, fine heads soon become scarce, the latter 

 requiring time, and in many cases a long period 

 thereof, to grow to first-class dimensions. 



Day by day, and in every village, native poachers 

 are at work, as if the sole aim and object of their 

 existence were the extermination of every edible 

 species. So loth is Government to interfere with 

 what the poachers consider their vested rights, 

 and so timid is it in risking opposition on the part 

 of native agitators, that the inevitable day when 

 legislation must at last interpose to save many 

 beautiful, interesting, and harmless species from 

 total extinction, is being put off and off with 

 terribly sad effects. Locking the stable door after 

 the horse has been stolen is admittedly a somewhat 

 futile procedure, and it behoves the Indian Govern- 

 ment to at once bestir itself, and, by a little highly 

 necessary legislation, to stem the torrent which is 

 fast sweeping away so many species of large game 

 before it is too late. 



