SMALL GAME 87 



bristly, nature of the hide. 



For nearly twenty years after the Taiping 

 rebellion the low lying lands in the pro- 

 vince, especially known as the Kashing 

 Plain, and the endless reed beds to be met 

 with to the west of the Tai Hu, were the 

 favored haunts of the river deer, but now 

 an energetic cultivation and an acutely 

 active reclamation of the marsh lands have 

 driven them to the countless asylums which 

 the river Yangtze affords, and whence the 

 market supplies are derived. When the 

 river is in autumn flood, and the bordering 

 lands inundated, the loss of deer life must 

 be appalling, for though the deer is both a 

 quick and a strong swimmer, it stands but 

 a poor chance when it attempts to stem the 

 resistless current, as those best know who 

 from the deck of a river steamer have 

 witnessed the loss from drowning. As had 

 already been said, there is no skill required 

 in and no sport derived from killing the 

 local deer, which are always at the mercy 

 of a charge of No. 8 shot. But the natives 

 have a double view in its slaughter : the 

 first is protective, for there can be no shadow 

 of doubt that deer play havoc with the grain 



