[ 185 j 



CHAPTER XXll— Continued. 



YANGTZE NOTES. 



CHINKIANG, 1910. 



By a. H. Rasmussen, 

 /. M. Customs. 



QHOOTING in Chinkiang at the present time is naturally not quite so good as some of 

 the old residents remember it once to have been. Game is getting scarce for various 

 reasons. The hills are infested with vermin ; foxes, weasels, etc ; and the native sportsman 

 pots young pheasants in August and September for the Shanghai market and for the mail 

 steamers. Crows and magpies have enormously increased in numbers of late years. The 

 demand for fuel yearly becomes greater and greater, and the country is utterly bared of 

 cover in the winter time ; consequently the game is being driven further inland year by year. 

 But in spite of this the neighbourhood affords a sufficiency of moderate sport for those who 

 are up to hard work. " Record " bags are no longer made here ; but a lover of nature, who 

 takes pleasure in beautiful scenery as well as in sport, can find unceasing pleasure amongst 

 our hills. 



Wild pigs are still to be found on the hills, where the "Community Bungalow" is 

 situated, on the Wuchoushan ; also on the Ch'angshan, Tungshan and Maanshan ; and 

 stalking them with beaters is glorious sport in the beginning of the season, viz., December. 

 Later, when news of a good bag having been made gets known, our hills become over-run 

 with visitors ; and the pigs getting no rest retire further and further inland. These visitors, 

 however, do not generally get good bags, for as a rule they are not in hard enough condition 

 for the work. Pig-shooting demands the best of condition in its votaries. When pigs are 

 numerous, a pig or two may be got by the easy-going sportsman after two or three days' 

 beating; but more frequently the bag in such cases is nil, and the country consequently 

 decried. The successful pig-shooter must, as above stated, be as hard as nails, and be able 

 to use his rifle nearly as quickly as a shot-gun ; and to fire steadily after 5 or 6 hours stiff 

 climbing ; while it frequently necessitates a 500 yards' race if the gun would intercept pigs 

 as they try to cross over the top of the hill one is working. Last year I had many hard runs 

 of this sort ; it is the most trying work imaginable. The first pig bagged this year gave 

 me a hard race from the bottom to the top of a very steep hill, some 800 to 900 feet high. 



