HUNTINO AND FISHING. 191 



leather to 83 lakhs. These figures leave out all local consumption, 

 which is -worth many times more, since every village has its 

 tanners and nearly every village its shoemaker. In the same 

 year Calcutta alone exported to inland places 30 lakhs' worth of 

 leather goods. 



The horns of the dead cattle, especially if they are buffaloes, 

 are also worth collecting. There are, at present, practically no 

 workers in horns in India, but there is a large export trade in 

 them to Europe (about 65,000 maunds, of an aggregate value of 

 9 lakhs of rupees), and the day cannot be far distant when combs 

 and other articles will be extensively manufactured from horns in 

 India itself, instead of the raw article being sent out of the coun- 

 try or allowed to perish in the forests and on the outskirts of towns 

 and villages. 



The so-called horns of deer contain no horny matter at all, but 

 consist entirely of bone and really constitute an inferior kind of 

 ivory. A small quantity of deer horns that have been shed can be 

 collected in almost every forest and would command ready sale. 

 As regards ivory, since the number of elephants is kept down by 

 the kheddah operations, and elephants live to a great age, the 

 annual find will always be insignificant and irregular. 



Bones are used for buttons, handles of knives, &c., and are also 

 ground into meal for manure. A large export trade to England in 

 bone-meal has recently sprung up from Bombay and Kurrachee 

 and along the routes leading to those ports. The total exports from 

 the country amount to about 50,000 tons a year. The price of the 

 meal in Bombay is Rs. 35 to 45 per maund. As yet the Indian 

 ryot is too prejudiced to use bone manure, but before long the preju- 

 dice will disappear, and then every scrap of bone lying in the forest 

 will become marketable. 



The best way to dispose of the products grouped under this head 

 is to give out annual leases for their collection, but great care 

 must be taken that the animals are not poisoned or shot by the 

 lessees. 



Section V. — Hunting and fishing. 



In all advanced countries a considerable income is derived by the 

 owners of forests and streams from hunting (including snaring 

 and trapping) and fishing ; and, where dangerous animals abound, 

 special arrangements are maintained by the State for their destruc- 

 tion. Two principal causes have hitherto militated in India against 

 the introduction of laws to regulate hunting and fishing : (.1) the 



