OAMK PHOTECTIOX IN IXDIA. 29 



nnderliugs for supplying his kitclieu with fresh meat ; and, 

 finally, the half-st;u'vefl villager of the meaner castes, who is 

 given a gun for use at night in the fields, but which weapon 

 is regularly and illegally used for the destruction of game animals 

 of every prohibited class. In this inventory, the Gurkha soldier 

 does not find a place, for he belongs to a class which he amply 

 fills by himself with his small but very important personality. 

 He deserves separate notice. From the banks of the Sarda on 

 the frontier of Nepal, to the banks of the Indus, the battalions of 

 these gallant little men are scattered in cantonments all along 

 the outer spurs of the Himalayan range. In seven or eight of 

 these locations there are at least fourteen thousand of these 

 disciplined wariiors, who, in the absence of opportunities for 

 spilling human blood legitimately, are given a free hand for 

 slaughtering wild animals, along five hundred miles of the best 

 hunting grounds in Upper India." 



I propose, then, to consider first the question of the formation 

 of Game Sanctuaries, defining a Game Sanctuary and the dif- 

 ferent ways of forming them, and detailing what has been done 

 under this head in the several Presidencies and Provinces of the 

 country and what in my opinion it would seem still remains to 

 be done. 



I shall then give an abstract of portions of the proposed new 

 Indian Game Act, making some suggestions for specifying more 

 distinctly than the Act does at present the various classes of 

 game, and suggesting that the game animals and bii'ds, as also 

 useful insectivorous birds, shall be severally mentioned in the 

 Act by name. I shall then indicate some specific suggestions 

 for the formation of close seasons and for the closing to shooting 

 of species which have been decimated by drought, anthrax, etc., 

 and for the definite regulation from year to year of the number 

 of head of particular species to be shot in given areas ; concluding, 

 finally, with some remarks on the subject of the proportion of the 

 head of game of a district to be shot respectively by the district 

 ofiicials and the outside sportsman. 



II. The Game Sanctuary. 



The idea of the Game Sanctuary was a natural outcome of 

 the indiscriminate slaughter to which wild animals have at all 

 times and in all countries been subjected by man. So long as it 

 was man imperfectly armed against the animal with his natural 

 sagacity or fierceness to protect him, conditions were equal, or 

 in favour of the animal, and there was no reason for intervention. 

 From the day, however, of the introduction of the breech-loader 

 and the repeater and a Avhole host of perfectly built weapons of 

 every kind, enabling man to kill with comparative ease and 

 certainty, the odds were against the animal and the question of 

 afibrding some degree of protection to tlie game of a country 

 became of parnmount importnnce ; and, curiously enongji, the 



