OUTLINE SKteTCH OF THE SHOOTING IN THE YAI^GTZSe VALLEY. 



appears to have been known of the interlying country, and it was not before the latter year 

 that what were known as the "Big Plain " at Tamen, and the " Little Plain " at Chungkiajow, 

 both on the Grand Canal, the former 10 and the latter 15 miles West of Kashing, and the 

 plain almost touching the Southern wall of Hai E came to be favourite shooting resorts. 

 Prior to that year (1870) the sportsman rarely went further afield, for the obvious reason 

 that the open country was little else than a waving prairie in which game found absolute 

 security, seldom rising unless quite surprised, but ever running before the gun. On the 

 other hand, the almost endless ruins of the two cities of Kazay and Kashing furnished 

 excellent sport, though the negociation of the rubble and the interminable briars was much 

 harder work than comes the sportsman's way nowadays, and yet heeded little at the time. 

 The ponds in and round these cities were haunts much favoured of the Mandarin duck, 

 deer and hares sported in the long grass and rubble, the coy partidge revelled in the thick 

 brambles, while the morning air was vocal with the cock-cocking of pheasants on all 

 sides. Huchow soon became better known, though of late years it has fallen sadly from 

 its high estate, and the Maychee Creek, by reason of the great size of the pheasants found 

 there, up to 4 lbs. in weight, and the abundance of wildfowl from its proximity to the Tai 

 Hu, as also on account of its clear water and lovely surroundings, the hill sides gorgeous in 

 their autumnal golden russet clothing, held for a long time a unique place in the opinion of 

 sportsmen. But now, alas ! all its glories are traditional. Quantum miitatus ah illo Hectare? 



After 1870, the praises of the Grand Canal beyond Soochow began to be sung. Larger 

 bags were said to have been made at Changchow, Pennu, Tanyang and in the Pintahu Creek 

 than had ever been made elsewhere before, and then began that rush for the great country, 

 100 miles in length as the crow flies, between Wusieh and Chinkiang. And there is no 

 doubt about it that this fine sketch of country, bisected for its whole length by the Grand 

 Canal, literally swarmed with game. The pigs shot on the Fungsitan range of hills, which 

 rises on the Northern margin of the Taihu, were noted for their size rather than their number, 

 some of the great beasts scaling 400 to 450 lbs. But pig, like deer, are fast becoming scarce 

 in those districts where but a few years ago they abounded, chiefly because of the determined 

 and persistent shooting of them by the farmers with whose crops of rice they played sad 

 havoc. 



The apparently unappeasable desire of the shooter for " fresh woods and pastures 

 new " led to the discovery of the great game districts of Taosejow, Kintang, Pejow and 

 Leyang, all of which places have long since been shorn of much of their glory. 



In 1872, the idea became more or less general that the ordinary houseboat then in use 

 was not commodious enough, but surely the days of "Three men in a boat," and that only 

 some 30 feet long, were just as enjoyable as are the trips in the floating palaces of to-day, 

 some of them nearly double that length. At the close of that year Mr. Groom designed two 

 sister boats, Undine and Lurline, built of teak, on modified native lines and with broad bluff 

 bows. They were 45 feet long, or half as long again as any then existing boat. However, 

 they were "well and truly" built, commodious, luxurious, quick under yuloh, and good 

 sailers with a free wind, and it speaks well for them that they have lasted 37 years and are 

 not "bad property" yet, though eclipsed by the costly mammoths of the present day. 

 But the question of houseboats will be found to be thoroughly gone into by experts in a 

 later chapter, and so for the present we will leave it. 



