407 Poachers and Poaching. 



provided they be actually engaged in doing so. The 

 keeper's sphere of action as regards night poaching 

 extends also to the gates, gaps, and outlets leading to the 

 public road, highway, or paths, and also to these roads 

 and paths if the keeper's employer owns or occupies the 

 land on one or both sides of them. If the keeper be in 

 hot chase of poachers, his sphere of action in this respect 

 also extends to ground adjoining that of his master. He 

 may also call upon other persons to assist him in arresting, 

 in which case their powers become identical with his own. 



As soon as possible after an arrest is effected, the 

 culprit must be handed over to the police and, whenever 

 possible, the gamekeeper should always endeavour to 

 secure the assistance of the police, who can stop, search, 

 and arrest presumed poachers on the high road and other 

 places to which the powers of the individual gamekeeper 

 do not extend. 



I have now cited the main points in respect to the game- 

 keeper's powers as regards poachers. It is most neces- 

 sary that he should always act within them, because in 

 almost every instance the poaching fraternity are more 

 minutely informed as to them than he is himself, and 

 seek to induce him to overstep these limits when they 

 come into conflict, so as to be able, if possible, to stultify 

 the keeper in the eyes of the authorities. 



It will be seen that the legal rights of the gamekeeper 

 do not carry him as far as his duties as such frequently 

 require, and it might very well be that they should be 

 extended were it not for the fact that it is, upon the 

 whole, customary to extend very much more consideration 

 to the poacher than to any other kind of thief. There is, 

 moreover, a widely-spread habit of investing the deeds of 

 the poacher with a great deal of mystery and even romance 

 of which the poacher, in fact, is quite guiltless. It is 



