HOUSEBOAT-GUN-DOG. 29 



a crew, and the important member is the 

 loadah, the captain of the boat. The 

 pleasures of a shooting trip may be wholly 

 destroyed by an incompetent or unwilling 

 crew, and when the loadah refuses to enter 

 into the spirit of the trip and proves 

 stubborn the annoyance becomes exasperat- 

 ing. Perhaps the better way of dealing 

 with an incorrigible loadah is to stop the 

 boat, make him go ashore, and put some 

 other member of the crew in command. 

 My own experience is that on one occasion 

 such action resulted in a prompt corrective 

 to all future hindrances and troubles and 

 the loadah was glad enough to have permis- 

 sion to return to the boat. In an 

 interesting and excellent book entitled, 

 " With Boat and Gun in the Yangtze 

 Valley ", the author, H. T. Wade, gives in 

 detail the duties of a loadah, which show 

 that the success or failure of the shooting 

 largely depends upon him. A paramount 

 qualification is that the loadah should have 

 an accurate knowledge of the places where 

 it is proposed to shoot and that he should 

 know how to control his crew. Unless he 

 possesses these qualifications his efficiency 

 in other respects will be at a large discount. 



