SPORTSMEN-NATURALISTS. 



THIRTY years ago, or thereabouts, I had many 

 dear friends in the navy. They were members of 

 our fleet stationed upon the Chinese seaboard, to 

 support the honour of our flag and to protect our 

 commerce. 



I cannot say what was the talisman in that special 

 service, but this I do know, that nearly all our dis- 

 tinguished sailors now figuring at the head of the 

 roll of fame were at that period members of the 

 small, select, and eminently serviceable force that did 

 duty in these dangerous seas. To enumerate all my 

 shooting companions of the sister servicefor I was 

 in the army would be impossible here, but three I 

 will mention, for they were eminently good sports- 

 men, good shots, and, if not erudite naturalists, were 

 at all events well skilled in the delightful science. 

 The present Admiral Kennedy, an excellent sports- 

 man and naturalist, I doubt not, knew them, for he 

 sailed the waters that laved the shores of " the 

 Flowery Land " at the time I write of, and possibly, 

 in their company, had many a brush with the tally 

 lunes or pitongs that infested the archipelagoes and 

 numerous land-locked seas that are characteristic of 

 the Chinese southern coast. 



The first was Lieutenant for I know not what he 

 may be now Hudson, of the tight little gunboat 

 Leven. Many were the days we enjoyed together, 

 and the classification of the contents of a day's bag 

 always afforded him as much pleasure as it did my- 



