NOTES BY AN OLD SPORTSMAN 293 



one would know what discomfort and hard 

 work are he should try tracking a boat on 

 a slippery path, in the dark, in pitiless rain. 

 The next morning we discovered our crew 

 in a tea shop in Nakong. On our paying 

 for their night's lodging they promised to 

 resume work. Joyfully we started out on 

 our shoot but ruefully returned when the 

 boy came into the country to tell us that 

 the crew had again decamped. Nothing 

 daunted we poled and tracked the boat to 

 the next village which we reached at 10 

 o'clock at night where we found every one 

 asleep. Our knocks at the door of one poor 

 hut brought out a couple of villagers who 

 said they would help us as far as Taitsan, 

 8 miles distant, which they did for a couple 

 of dollars, and at which pay they grumbled. 

 At Taitsan we solicited the assistance of a 

 gunboat, assistance which was granted to 

 us in the persons of four townsmen who 

 apparently had never been in a boat before. 

 By slow degrees we reached Shanghai, 

 where the matter was reported to the 

 police, from whom the promise was exacted 

 that they would "look into it." 



This occurred eleven years ago, and not 

 having heard anything from them since I 



