SPORTING AND GUARD DOGS 



rather than for sporting purposes. When shot with it the 

 game is more often sitting than on the wing. Powder and 

 shot are too expensive, and their supply to a mis-ruled people 

 under a weak Government is not encouraged. Consequently, 

 it is not surprising to find in China but little of that care 

 and skill which are devoted to the training of sporting dogs in 

 Europe. 



The existence of modern game laws is unknown through 

 the greater part of China, and such as exist are not known ever 

 to have been honoured in the observance. They were drafted 

 by officials having no knowledge of natural history, and, 

 partly, no doubt, on account of the vast area to be covered, 

 where published, have never been taken seriously. 



Under the Chinese Emperors, preservation of game in the 

 hunting-parks appears to have been very strict. Even in 

 recent years poachers of Imperial deer were punished with 

 death. Settlement on the Imperial preserves, which in the 

 case of the Northern hunting-park comprised an area 

 approximately equal to that of England, was strictly pro- 

 hibited, and a large guard of soldiers was maintained to 

 prevent encroachment. Marco Polo states : " For twenty 

 days' journey round the spot nobody is allowed to keep hawks 

 or hounds, though anywhere else whosoever list may keep 

 them. And, furthermore, throughout all the Emperor's 

 territory, nobody, however audacious, desires to hunt any 

 of these four animals, to wit, the hare, stag, buck, and roe, from 

 the month of March to the month of October. Anybody who 

 should do so would rue it bitterly. But those people are so 

 obedient to their lord's command that even if a man were to 

 find one of those animals asleep by the roadside he would not 

 touch it for the world ! And thus the game multiplies at 

 such a rate that the whole country swarms with it, and the 

 Emperor gets as much as he could desire. Beyond the term 



59 



