42 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
officials and their guests, but a fishing pass can 
be obtained from the Durbar without trouble, and 
this will insure ingress to the country, which is well 
worth a visit even though the shooting of tigers 
is barred. 
After a time spent in the forests of Bahraich and 
Gonda, I returned to the charge of the Kheri forests. 
There was an immense amount of work in progress, 
and at this time the protection of the forest from 
fire was giving much trouble. The people did not 
understand why they should abandon the immemorial 
custom of firing the forest in order to obtain a new 
growth of grass, or to make hunting and netting 
easier, or to restrict the raids of wild beasts on their 
crops or on their domestic animals. A system of 
broad “ fire-lines,” or cleared rides, had been devised 
in order to locate any fire that might break out, 
and so permit of counter-firing, but the task at that 
time seemed almost hopeless ; fires occurred almost 
every year, and their intensity and the consequent 
damage were in proportion to the period of success- 
ful protection that had preceded them; and, more- 
over, each such catastrophe cast a slur on the Forest 
Officer’s administration, often undeservedly, for it 
was not sufficiently recognized that in the. East 
education can but slowly affect the habits of the 
people. They had to be taught in practice the 
difference between the value of a burnt and an 
unburnt forest, and, as the population increased, it 
had to learn how the forest could be of importance 
to the community, where before it was an enemy 
to be fought by a few opponents who regarded 
fire as their strongest weapon. With patience 
