42 WITH BOAT AND GUN IN THE YANGTZE VALLEY. 



Chinese boys standing up behind you with their long robes fluttering in the wind 1 Then the 

 band plays I 



Do not use a rifle on any pretence whatever. In fact, do not take one with you, and 

 then your ill-success in getting within range with your fowling-piece will not tempt you to 

 use the longer-carrying weapon. I have known otherwise perfectly sane men bang away 

 with a rifle at fowl at impossible distances and with an utter disregard to the ultimate billet 

 of the bullet. 



Most of the islands in the estuary are populated ; the others are covered with reed 

 "cutties," and there are native boats all about; so leave your rifle at home. A rook rifle may 

 be pardoned if you always make sure of your back ground but your chance of hitting any- 

 thing bobbing up and down in the waves is very remote. If the flood tide is just making put 

 a few bundles of reeds in the bow of your China dinghy and lie down behind on some clean 

 straw, while your boat-coolie, crouching low in the stern, slowly and silently guides the 

 boat on to the birds. Remember that wild-fowl in rising always turn to windward to get 

 the wind under their wings to assist them to rise ; so gauge your approach accordingly. 

 When a herd of swan is getting under way it takes the birds several seconds to free their 

 wings and feet clear of the water, and the splashing noise two or three hundred of them 

 make on rising can be heard a long way off — to say nothing of the row they make 

 " whooping," Needless to tell you not to smoke at this time ; don't keep bobbing j'^our head 

 up and down to look how you are progressing, and don't talk. Do not fire at anything 

 over 50 yards off, and do not be tempted to bang in a rage " into the brown " at impossible 

 distances simply because the birds get up before you are close enough. "Bide your time." 

 The birds may slip up at last and you will get your reward. Shooting on the ebb is a waste 

 of time and temper. Your boat always gets ashore before you get within range, and you 

 may consider yourself lucky if you get off again before the next flood makes. I shall not 

 forget my companion and myself having to leave our China boat and row a duck-punt for 

 several miles in the dark against the tide back to the Clutha, keeping close to the bank all 

 the way to avoid a tide-race outside of us which we could hear but not see. 



Decoy-shooting has its votaries, and if you elect to go in for that you can get a 

 Chinese carver to make and paint any number of wooden decoys. Select a place among 

 the reeds, if they are still uncut, or, if cut, near a reed stack. Dig a hole, and, after a tide 

 or two has washed away all surface traces of the disturbance, sink a cask two-thirds into 

 the hole, fill it half full of straw, cover it with reeds; have a small stool to sit on. See that 

 the top of your cask is above high water spring tides; plant your decoys; get inside your 

 cask; do not smoke; and await results. Do not go to sleep, as an old friend of mine once 

 did and slumbered peacefully while the ducks swam round him in hundreds, unharmed. 

 Always fix your return into Woosung so that you have the flood tide with you; but if caught 

 at Tsungming in a north-west gale, sail close along the shore until you are well above Bush 

 Island; then wait until the ebb has made an hour, when the sea will have moderated, and 

 you can run across to Woosung in safety and comfort. You can then get on board your 

 house-boat and wait for the next tide, or, if pressed for time, land at the Woosung Creek 

 jetty and walk or drive up the old railway, 9 miles to Shanghai. 



Carriages may be hired about half-a-mile up from the mouth and on the right bank 

 of the Woosung Creek. If you wish to get to the Kiutoan Large Beacon — opposite the 



