248 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
Valley at all in detail, and during that time about 
400 miles may be walked, even only when changing 
camp; the inspection of forests and the pursuit of 
partridge and pheasant may easily lead to double 
that distance being traversed. 
To spend Christmas and the New Year in camp 
in the Central Provinces, as we did in 1904, and 
again in 1906, affords unqualified pleasure. At 
that season the country is dry, while in the Tarai it 
is still damp; and the chilly nights are followed by 
balmy warmth. On our first tour we explored the 
Badlaghat forests, where Mr. Percival was then the 
officer in charge, and he knew the country as only a 
good sportsman would. The forests of the Central 
Provinces, extending over more than 20,000 square 
miles, are too vast for any but a_ superficial 
acquaintance by means of short visits; but those 
who have spent their lives in them speak of the 
country with an enthusiasm that finds an echo in 
the heart of any listener who appreciates the free- 
dom that is implied by endless wooded hills, and by 
Nature unhampered by the pressure of population. 
But even here it will not always be so. The 
Province has long since been circumscribed by rail- 
ways, which are now commencing to throw out 
feeders towards its centre; and when there are 
outlets for the immense supply of forest produce to 
those adjoining territories that have already con- 
sumed their own, when there is cheap carriage for 
the mineral wealth of the country to the seaboard, 
when the wasted water-power has been harnessed 
for industrial purposes, and, lastly, when population 
increases aS a natural consequence of a demand for 
