GAME-DRIVING IN CASHMERE. 291 



decreased by it. In order to justify my idea, let me remark 

 that I can remember the time when, notwithstanding the 

 annual conflagrations and the grazing of cattle in the forests, 

 the hardwood timber of Dehra Boon was of as fine a size and 

 quality as it is ever likely to be again with any amount of 

 conserving. I know of one instance in Scotland where a tree 

 was actually improved by being scorched. It was an apple- 

 tree, raised from Canadian seed, in a clergyman's garden in 

 Forfarshire. For years after it had attained a considerable 

 size, it never showed a sign of bearing fruit, until a pile of dry 

 weeds and garden refuse lying below it having been casually 

 set fire to, scorched it so much that the owner thought it was 

 dead. The following year, to his surprise, it again burst into 

 leaf, and for the first time yielded a heavy crop of splendid 

 fruit. However, the foregoing remarks are intended more as 

 suggestions than dogmatic assertions, for time alone can prove 

 their validity or their futility. 



As the stags had now almost ceased their bellowing in the 

 forests, and were consequently very difficult to find, I took to 

 driving some of the densely wooded gorges for bears and 

 musk-deer ; and driving is, in my humble opinion, not to be 

 compared with what our American cousins call " still-hunting " 

 in close country, or to stalking your game on more open 

 ground. The Cashmerees generally drive a gorge upwards, 

 the ridges on each side being guarded by men posted as stops 

 at short intervals along them, whilst at first, only a few beaters 

 advance slowly and quietly from below, giving an occasional 

 tap with their sticks against a tree. The line is augmented 

 1>\ tin- llimktTS as it reaches their respective posts, until all 

 hands arrive at the head of the gorge, along which the guns 

 are posted under suitable cover. During the few times this 

 plan was tried, a good many hinds and calves were driven out, 

 but only one good stag was seen, and that broke bock through 

 the beaters. Several black bears and musk-deer were also 

 beaten out : one of the former I shot. As I was unable to 

 secure another horned beast to furnish a new ear for the 



