the sides of the steep hill. Inside the city walls are several other temples, 
Confucian and Buddhist, whilst in the cliff near the northern gate is another 
cave similar to the one across the river, but in a sad state of disrepair. 
From the sportsman’s point of view, Yen-an Fu affords winter quarters 
hard to beat. Several large valleys meet at this point, and in these the 
numerous patches of thorn-scrub shelter great numbers of hares and 
pheasants. The rocky sides of the valleys form the homes of large coveys 
of red-legged partridges, and at no great distance from the town roe-deer and 
wild pig are abundant ; the former having been seen even within a mile of the 
town walls. Wild fowl, chiefly mallard and teal, may be shot on the Yen 
Shui, where they are often to be found disporting themselves in the open 
spaces of an otherwise ice-bound river. They afforded a very welcome 
addition to our bill of fare; in fact during our stay we may be said to have 
lived almost entirely on the spoils of the chase; deer, hare, pheasant, 
partridge, pigeon, mallard, or teal always contributing to our table. 
It was a great disappointment to find that Josephine, who had come with 
us from T’ai-yiian and had the looks of a good setter, was useless in the field. 
The birds would lie low till the guns were right on top of them, when they 
would break cover with a terrific thundering of wings, flying in every 
direction. The result was disconcerting in the extreme. On being disturbed 
they would always make for the hills, when long tiring scrambles would 
become necessary, if more birds were to be secured. Needless to say that 
shooting under these conditions was often erratic, whilst the bags were never 
very large in spite of the abundance of game. However, hot corners were 
frequent, where the sportsman could have managed very well with two or 
three loaders. Even as things were, it was often possible to load two, three, 
or even four times before the last bird rose from the surrounding scrub. On 
Christmas Day, Clark and Sowerby had a particularly good day’s pheasant 
shooting. The latter on his specimen-trapping excursions had obtained a 
good idea of the spots where pheasants were most likely to be found in large 
numbers. Riding out at about Io a.m. with their guns and a mounted 
attendant, they made for a large patch of thorn-scrub some distance from the 
Yen Shui valley. It was their intention to work back slowly from here to the 
city, and then up another valley till daylight failed. The sport commenced 
with a hot corner, where the guns got right into the thick of a large flock of 
pheasants, bringing down six birds with the first few shots. From that spot 
onwards the place seemed to be alive with birds, and throughout the day the 
party never once drew blank. Here a bouquet yielded its quota of fine fat 
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