WILD-FOWL SHOOTING OUTSIDE WOOSUNG. 41 



Occasionally a good stalk can be had on shore when the geese are feeding in the fields, and 



to this kind of "hunting" the nature of the country is most favourable with its numerous 



embankments 



" . . . . where the 



Dikes that the hand of the farmer had raised with labour incessant 



Shut out the turbulent tides." 



A few words on the outfit advisable may be useful : — 



Guns. — Use a 4-bore if you can, A double-barrelled 8-bore, full choke, I find the best. 

 In addition, take your ordinary l2-bore as a cripple stopper. No. 2 shot for your heavy gun, 

 and No. 4 for your l2-bore. 



Ammunition Box, copper-lined and waterproof. 



Cartridge Bag of the ordinary waterproof kind to hold your cartridges when you go 

 ashore. 



Field-glasses are indispensable. 



Food and Drink. — Have a neat case to hold the needful — not forgetting that you are in 

 for cold work, and that " a wild-fowler must live well and treat himself generously." You 

 can always have something warmed up on board the China boat. 



Compass. — Do not start without two — one in your pocket and one for the boat. It 

 is not pleasant, after you have tumbled into a creek, to lose your way back to Woosung 

 in a snow-storm. 



White Duck Over-all and Cap-cover. — These are useful for stalking fowl in a fog. 



Chart. — Remember that the banks and shoals are constantly shifting and that 

 considerable changes have taken place since chart. No. 1602, was made, — e.g., Rush 

 Island is washing away down stream a mile or two and has already filled up the passage 

 between it and Small Island. 



Having made your preparations, start off. When you get out to the Red Buoy, if it is 

 blowing hard from the north-west, don't go any further. Turn back ; run up to the Kajow 

 Creek, walk over to the sea wall, and down to the Beacon, and spend the day there. You 

 won't get much to shoot — perhaps a pheasant or two and a duck, but you will have had 

 some healthy exercise and seen a considerable number of wild-fowl. Often, however, the 

 wind dies away at sunset and does not revive until about 8 o'clock the next morning ; so 

 that the passage over to Bush Island may be made in the interval in comparative comfort 

 even in small boats. 



One of my friends once came over from below Small Island to Woosung in a duck- 

 punt, but this was taking too "big" a risk altogether, and is not recommended. Run down 

 on the last of the ebb and drift up on the birds over the banks as the tide makes. As the 

 banks get covered the fowl get floated off, drift up with the tide for a mile or two and then 

 fly back. On a calm day the channel between Bush Island and Tsungming is covered with 

 wild-fowl ; but, as a rule, however much asleep they may be when 150 yards from your boat, 

 they are very wide awake before you get within range. "Of all sports, that of wild-fowling 

 is the most uncertain and tantalizing." The sea and sky may be full of fowl — duck, swan, 

 and geese all about you — and you won't get one; or you may mark geese down 

 into a field and, after a long and careful stalk, just as you are getting within range off they 

 go. You wonder what can have disturbed them, until, looking round, you see three or four 



