258 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
recent years any central institution where the 
results of the investigations of zealous foresters 
might be recorded for the use of their colleagues. 
Often such knowledge lies hidden in reports or 
note-books, or has been even more deeply buried in 
the brain of those who had learnt from Nature some 
of her secrets—so much so that it has happened 
that experiments lang since carried out have again 
been proposed as necessary novelties years after, 
showing that there has been no record of knowledge 
gained, and therefore no full utilization of the work 
of our predecessors. 
In 1904 and during the next two years I had 
the pleasure of a yearly visit in April to the Patli 
Doon, where Mr. L. Mercer was then Conservator of 
Forests. The few days spent in these well-known 
jungles were always a delight, occurring as they did 
at the pleasantest springtime, when in Northern 
India the overpowering vitality of the forest was 
awakening. Good sport, too, we enjoyed, roaming 
with rod or rifle in early morning and late evening 
along the river-banks or at the foot of the hills; 
and I shall always cherish memories of a tussle with 
one big tiger in the Shishamkata Forest, and of meet- 
ing another at earliest dawn over his kill, when the 
silence of the forest gave no cause for suspicion on 
the part of even the wariest of its inhabitants. 
Here, too, I met with pleasure many old friends, 
subordinates and contractors, who came to visit me, 
and compliment me on my promotion, and chatter 
about former days; for it is one of the greatest. 
compliments to the officer, who is soon to sever his 
active connection with his life’s work in India, to be 
