WITH BOAT AND GUN IN THE YANGTZE VALLEV. 



In the same year (1872) some further stimulus was given to shooting by the appearance 

 of the well-known Sport man's Diary for Shooting Trips in North China. It contained much 

 information about "things not generally known," and, in fact, was a real vade-mecum for 

 the shooter. Soon after its publication the first authentically recorded big bag was made, 

 and the following particulars respecting it were given to the writer by a member of the 

 party, which consisted of six guns. Shooting commenced on the lOth December at Pejow, 

 and was confined to the Pasejow creek, scarcely three miles in length. The bag consisted 

 of 1,629 head, made up 1,497 pheasants, 74 dear, 47 ducks and teal and ll extras. 



In the next year, 171 head, nearly all pheasants, were accounted for by a well-known 

 sportsman in three days. In 1875, the Nadoo country, further west, became known and few 

 better shooting regions have yet been discovered than those on either side of the two 

 barriers which sever direct communication with the Kuchen Lake in the Wuhu country. 

 The reed beds of the Nadoo country and the adjacent Sunpaboo and Sunsingboo hills for 

 years abounded with wild pig. Favourite return journeys from this neighbourhood were 

 via Leyang, Eshing and Wuchee, and across the S.W. corner of the Taihu to Huchow, while 

 an alternative route was the Northern one by way of Eshing, Santingkong and Fungsitan. 



Later years have seen Wuhu take premier position among shooting places, and justly 

 so, for game is still there in great quantities, pheasants, deer, hares, woodcocks and snipes, 

 while the great lagoons and the Great South Lake, so shallow that none but the lightest 

 punts can begin to negotiate them, furnish unlimited food and protection for wildfowl of 

 every kind. The Ewo bags for II trips, which totalled no less than 12,597 head of game, 

 stamp the Wuhu country as the best game preserve yet discovered in the Yangtze Valley. 



As regards wildfowl shooting per se efforts have been made from time to time to 

 circumvent the wary birds, but no continuous systematic attempts have been undertaken 

 properly to pursue the fowler's art. What may be done by going to work in a systematic 

 manner, the discreet placing of blinds and sink-boxes, and the judicious feeding the 

 ground, was well shown by a visitor here in 1895, when in ID tides he accounted for 422 

 head, his armoury consisting only of two double-barreled guns, a lO-bore and a l2-bore. 

 Up country, of course, and especially in the Wuhu country, fair bags are sometimes made 

 either from lucky stalks, or the happy "happening" on an unsophisticated company 

 of mixed fowl. But the cream of the sport is to be had in the estuary of the Yangtze. On 

 any day, especially after frost and snow and a blow when fowl are " in," thousands and 

 thousands of swan, geese, duck, widgeon, teal, etc., may be seen drifting with the tide or 

 standing in veritable battalions on the ooze beds which fringe the Tsungming, Bush, Block 

 House, Green and other islands. A sight not to be forgotten is a herd of swans standing in 

 line like well drilled soldiers. The usual way in which wild fowl are approached is to sail 

 up to them on the flood in the ordinary flat-bottomed Woosung craft— capital seaboats in 

 heavy weather and invariably splendidly handled— and pour in the ordinance when the op- 

 portunity presents. But this mode of attack rarely meets with a success worth mentioning. 

 In consequence of the generally lumpy state of the water a steady shot from the fragile 

 punt cannot be depended upon. 



That the field of operation for the sportsman is enormous and still largely undeveloped 

 may be revealed by a glance at the map, though but few really realize the extent of the 

 ground there displayed and so easily available. 



