30 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
firing, and sometimes to subseqnent loss of interest 
in the hunt; and, lastly, all the woodcraft, which 
is the chief pleasure in big-game shooting, was- 
in the hands of the leader, and his companions had 
nothing to do but to profit by his astuteness, as the 
marshalling of elephants in line and their advance 
and retreat was frequently directed by signalling, as 
in a military review., The Forest Officer will indeed 
find that he has little time to spare for organized 
shooting trips, and that he can obtain such sport as 
he desires when following his daily avocations. 
After a few years in Kheri as assistant, I was sent 
across the Sarda to the charge of the Bhira forests, 
of which Maildni, now on the Rohilkhand and 
Kumaon Railway, was the headquarters. This area 
of about 150 square miles is outside the Tarai, and 
is surrounded and intersected by the wheat, barley, 
and rice fields of many populous villages; there was, 
thus, never much game in it. Panthers, of course, 
lived and bred there, and tigers crossed from the 
main forests that lay to the north during the autumn 
months, but the deer were much harried by incessant 
poaching ; and though even now a pleasant time can 
be spent in Bhira by the observant sportsman, it was 
not, nor is it even now, a place one would visit were 
the denser forests farther north available. Being 
nearer civilization, however, the work in the forests 
was incessant; there were roads to be aligned and 
houses to be built, while the marking of areas for 
felling took up much time, so I was glad when I was 
transferred to the charge of the forest division in 
the Bahraich district. 
The forests here consisted of four separate blocks 
