HDNTING AND FISHING. 195 



gulated principally by the value of game in the locality, the 

 accessibility of the forest, and the number of applicants. If it is 

 desired to limit the number of applicants, high fees should be 

 charged. The fee may be fixed for the whole year, or the year 

 may be divided into periods, the scale of fees for the several periods 

 being proportionate to the dangerous nature of the season for for- 

 est conservancy and the convenience of the time of the year for 

 seeing and tracking game. The levy of the fees should be based 

 on the number of "effective guns" with the party, i.e., the num- 

 ber of persons carrying and using guns. The number of elephants 

 used in hunting should also be taken into account, and a certain fee 

 charged for each such elephant. All other things being the same, 

 the success of a hunt will depend on the number of elephants used, 

 and sportsmen possessing the means to employ elephants are ipso 

 facto able to pay higher fees than other people. Moreover, ele- 

 phants crush and break a good deal of the forest growth, besides 

 grazing as they are driven along. On the other hand, sportsmen 

 mounted on elephants have less temptation to fire the grass, and are 

 more to be trusted than the majority of those who cannot afford the 

 use of elephants. The fees should in any case be high enough to 

 leave a reasonable surplus after paying for additional establish- 

 ments required by the increased supervision necessary for control- 

 ling the hunting. Every large hunting party should be accompa- 

 nied by a trustworthy official, whose special duty will be to look 

 afte-r the followers and prevent acts endangering the safety of 

 the forest, particularly when the party is encamped inside the forest. 

 Fishing is very much more easily regulated than hunting. It 

 involves but little, if any, risk to the forest, and is limited to defi- 

 nite lines, and may often even be restricted to certain lengths of 

 the course of a stream or to pools and tanks. Hence the sole ob- 

 ject to be sought in prescribing rules for fishing is the preservation 

 of the fish, and to this end the poisoning or damming up of water 

 should be absolutely prohibited and a minimum size of mesh should 

 be fixed for fishing nets. A close season may also be prescribed 

 for fishing generally in special spawning grounds or for particular 

 kinds of fish everywhere. For purposes of revenue, the right of 

 fishing may be leased or a certain fee may be levied per net or rod. 

 In the rains, when the rivers are in flood, the water-courses that 

 are at other seasons dry become rapid torrents, and fish come up 

 them in shoals and are easily clubbed. From people who thus 

 club fish and from those who catch fish by torchlight from under 

 stones and boulders it will always be difficult to collect revenue. 

 The latter practice should, howev.er, in most cases be forbidden. 



