eeded in order to check the abominable
cruelties committed by the native hunters. Writing to me with reference to
this subject, Colonel J. P. Grant, the head of the Survey and Settlement
Service, observes as follows:

"Gunning and especially netting, in the most reckless and improvident
manner, are on the increase. Antelope are fast disappearing, and in the
jungle tracts night shooting is clearing out spotted deer especially. As
for cruelty nothing can exceed the indifference of net-workers to any pain
they may cause their captures. Snipe are caught and their legs and wings
broken, and in this condition they are kept alive and carried to market.
The wounding, necessarily reckless during night shooting, is horribly
cruel. Pea fowl, jungle fowl, or anything fairly big, have their eyes sewn
up. I have often seen this. In the case of hares the tying is very cruel,
the thong cutting down to the bone; and the same is the case with any deer
they may catch alive."

The rapid destruction of game of all kinds has been as melancholy as it
has been remarkable, and I confess I never could have believed how
complete, especially as regards small game, the deadly work has been had I
not had occasion in recent years to drive, by easy stages, and early in
the morning, along the whole of the western frontier of Mysore, and also
much of the adjacent district of Coorg. In the old days, when riding, we
always went at a walk and took our guns with us for shots at pea fowl,
jungle fowl, pigeons, and other small game. But now you can neither see
nor hear anything to shoot. And yet one of the favourite accusations of
the Indian Congress against the Indian Government is that in consequence
of the Arms Act the natives are unable to obtain guns and ammunition in
order to defend themselves and their crops from the attacks of wild
animals, though the scarcity of large game, and, in many cases, its
absolute extinction, is notorious to sportsmen all over India. But the
Mysore Government, I am happy to say, has at last directed its attention
to the subject, and I have every reason to believe that a Game Act will
soon be introduced in Mysore.

The last want I have to allude to is that of a Government agricultural
chemist, who should be empowered at a rate of fees, fixed by the State, to
analyze soils and manures for private individuals, and to consult with
planters and others as to the requirements of their soils and the best way
of supplying them with