320 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
public Service, by obviating the necessity of the prep- 
aration of arguments that shall insure the ultimate 
success of organized protest, would be a considerable 
asset in any department that has already more than 
its full tale of work to perform, without taking into 
consideration the gain in the harmonious relations 
of employer and employed. 
Finally, as to sport in India, in so far as the 
forest is concerned, the time has already arrived 
when bitterness and jealousies are not uncommon, 
as a perusal of correspondence in the daily press will 
show. And this is but natural when the Govern- 
ment has been forced to interfere to protect from 
promiscuous slaughter the interesting fauna of the 
country. At present no one can shoot in Govern- 
ment forests without first purchasing a licence that 
defines the area placed at the sportsman’s disposal, 
the number and kind of animals he may kill, and 
the close seasons that have been fixed ; and in the 
midst of the eager applications for these licences the 
Forest Officer may find himself entirely cut off from 
sport in the area under his charge, or be afraid to 
fire a shot, lest he should be encroaching on territory 
leased to another. So much is this the case that 
more than one Forest Officer has laid aside gun and 
rifle entirely, so as to have a freer hand in the issue 
of licences and in the decision of disputes that may 
arise amongst others—a distinctly humorous result 
of game laws that add to the duties of the forester 
that of gamekeeper, and.deprive him of one of the 
most popular incentives to a forester’s career. 
As a rule, the man who passes his life amongst 
the big game attacks it in his youth, with the 
