06 PHEASANT SHOOTING, 



doing so we got rather scattered. My companions worked up the val- 

 ley, and I could hear their guns every now and again. Just as I reach- 

 ed the stream, I caught a glimpse of a water deer, scrambling round 

 a corner of the bank. It got away, however, before I could draw on it. 

 Turning down stream, I walked for some time through very pretty 

 cover, picking up a quail here and there, and securing another brace of 

 pheasants. 



Finally I worked back to the railway, where the lunch-basket 

 coolies were waiting. One of these said he could show me where a 

 deer was, so off I went with him. Sure enough, within a couple of 

 hundred yards, we put up my water deer again out of some reeds. My 

 first barrel of fours only got its body, and it continued as if unhurt, 

 but my second, taking it in the head, brought it down with a thud. 



Soon my companions arrived at the place of rendezvous, and we 

 counted the bag. It contained about six brace of pheasants, two 

 hares, one water deer and about fifteen quail. Our bags, we were told 

 by a local sportsman, were nothing compared with those which "had 

 been made in the same locality earlier in the season, but we were all 

 pleased enough, and two days later boarded the up bound train, feeling 

 that the week had not been wasted, and promising ourselves another 

 such outing, come next Chinese New Year. 



