AN EXPLOEATION IN THE FAE EAST 355 



modern/ is a warning against rash interference with the 

 life-giving forests of hilly regions where rivers are born. 

 The scientific forester must now take the place of the ex- 

 plorer ; and the Government have taken the proper course 

 in seeing that all newly appointed forest officers shall in 

 future go through a course of instruction in the advanced 

 schools of forestry in Germany and France. The danger 

 is lest a too purely professional view of forest questions be 

 allowed to exclude considerations bearing powerfully on 

 the general economy of the masses of the people, and par- 

 ticularly of the hill-tribes ; and lest cut-and-dried theories, 

 based on the example of moist temperate regions, be 

 apphed without sufB^cient caution to the very different 

 conditions of tropical forests. For example, one of the 

 practices of continental forestry, the working of forests in 

 blocks by rotation, though probably quite inappUcable to 

 a hot country, where stripping the soil of all the trees at 

 once converts it into an arid desert, is still aimed at in our 

 Indian forests, and is the cause of much, and I believe 

 wasteful, expenditure of money. Many important matters 

 can even now be dealt with only in a tentative manner; 

 and the wisdom of the administrator must always be joined 

 to the technical skill of the forester to secure the best 

 results. 



My narrative is now done, having carried the reader 

 over every portion of these Central Highlands, and even 

 taken a step with him below their eastern termination. 

 In the course of our rambles he has made the acquaintance 

 of every wild animal he is Ukely to meet with in the forests ; 

 and it only remains for me to offer a f ew.hints to the traveller 

 or sportsman who may contemplate an excursion in these 

 regions. Few men would probably come to India merely 

 to shoot over this central wilderness. But as a field for 

 general travel, and even as a sporting ground, India is 

 rapidly coming into favour among the wandering section 

 of Englishmen. I need not dilate on the general interest 

 of the country. It may be hoped that most EngHshmen 

 will benefit as much from a tour through this greatest of 



^ A pamphlet, admirable for learning and research, on this subject, 

 by Dr. Dalzeil, Conservator of Forests in Bombay, exhausts the subject. 



