120 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
by rule-of-thumb and by the traditions of their 
ancestors. The Englishman abroad admired the 
forests of France and Germany, but failed to appre- 
ciate the significance of their absence in Italy or 
Greece. He believed in the term “inexhaustible ” 
as applied to the woodlands of Scandinavia and 
America, and took no interest in timber save as 
regards its quality and price. 
How matters have altered in this regard during 
the last fifteen or twenty years has been set forth in 
many writings, but now sufficient has been said to 
indicate that at the time of which I write it would 
have been impossible to undertake in England any 
study of forestry which could have been useful to 
those recruits of the Indian Civil Service who were 
to develop into India’s future rulers ; while the posi- 
tion of those who had already attained was, in the 
majority of cases, as regards such technical know- 
ledge, even more hopeless. There was therefore no 
blame attached in this instance to want of perspi- 
eacity. For instance, what these officials thought 
they saw was a band of enthusiasts who were 
engaged in the pernicious occupation of land- 
grabbing at the people's expense. The band of 
enthusiasts existed, but it was engaged in saving 
the forests for the nation—indiscreetly sometimes, 
no doubt, as is the case with all enthusiasts. What 
they imagined they detected was an attempt to 
make revenue by restricting the rights of the people; 
what was happening was that the people were 
having their rights so liberally acknowledged that 
they could not fully utilize them, and that at the 
same time large sums were yearly being paid into 
