10 WITH BOAT AND GUN IN THE YANGTZE VALLEY. 



The West and North portions of the city are for the most part built over ; the rest is given 

 up to old graveyards, ruins, ponds well margined with grass, and a few sprucely kept 

 gardens. Thick flag grass covers the fine wall embankments until cut down late in the 

 season, January and February. A lovely creek leads from the North-West gate to Changzu 

 (iR tm), and capital cover is to be found for 5 or 6 // up on its Western side. Mixed bags 

 are the order of the day at Taitsan — pheasants, woodcock, teal, hare and winter snipe. 

 Occasionally on the marshes which lie to the West of the city, on both sides of the broad 

 creek leading to Quinsan, are to be picked up quail, hare and pheasants ; and in their season 

 snipes and a few wild fowl. 3 It to the West of the marshes is a favourite spring snipe 

 feeding ground. The country round Taitsan is very pretty and within the city itself are 

 still left many beautiful bamboo copses and real Devonshire lanes. 



These, of course, do not exhaust all the near shooting spots. Fair sport is often 

 to be had for the whole length of the Powwokong Creek, some 30 //. The Big Trees Creek 

 is a great favourite with some shooters, while there are likely bits of ground from the 

 Widows' Monuments to Lokopan, a distance of 28 //, on both sides of the Soochow Creek. 

 Again, the Fongtah Creek, 30 // in length, connecting Wongdoo and Nakong, leads through 

 a good-looking country, the best shooting being quite close up to the town of Fongtah. 



14.— The Hills: Fengwansjhan (H Jl, tij). "The Phoenix Mountains" 



Three routes may be taken to the Hills. The nearest, but a very objectionable, way is 

 up the Sicawei Creek, via Cheepoo and Cheekiang. A preferable trip is via Wongdoo and 

 the Creek a few // above it, leading to Bokosan, a little over 95 //. With a steam-launch, or 

 a fair North-East breeze, via the Miao Pagoda, near Soongkong, is the pleasantest way of 

 reaching the Hills, though the round is rather long — 150 //. 



15.— Kazay and K ashing. 



These centres have for many years enjoyed an honourable sporting reputation. 

 They are both walled cities in the adjoining province of Chekiang, and neither has quite 

 recovered from the effects of the Taiping Rebellion which took place fifty years ago. 

 The quickest means of reaching these places is with a steam-launch, and this can be done 

 without going to the great expense of chartering one or of putting oneself under the 

 obligation of borrowing, for there is regular daily native steam communication between 

 Shanghai and Hangchow, via Kazay and Kashing — a tow is to be had for the modest sum 

 of $10. per boat. 



En route to the former city a place worth stopping at is Fungking, 180 // from 

 Shanghai. It is a long straggling town with broken ground on both sides of it, its North- 

 East end terminating in a large reed bed. A few pheasants and a hare or two can usually 

 be got here, and frequently teal. The walk from Fungking to (^ W) Chunsingway (^ ft W), 

 12 //, especially the East bank of the Creek, will certainly put weight on the game rail. 



A good morning's shooting may be obtained between Chunsingway and Kazay, 9 //, 

 on the South side of the Creek. 



Kazay (^ #). "Exceedingly Good." 



Kazay, 201 // from Shanghai, is often passed by in the shooter's hurry to get on to 

 Kashing, but good and varied bags often reward the less impetuous sport. The city is 



