228 WITH BOAT AND GUN IN THE YANGTZE VALLEY. 



better known to the foreigner are Lishan where the hills run down to the river, and at 

 whose base partridges may be flushed in plenty. About 30 // further on is the town of 

 Fuyang on the left bank, at the neck of a long copse-dotted valley, which has proved pretty 

 rich in pheasants, woodcock, deer and hares. From Fuyang to Liu Chia Wang (hamlet of 

 the Liu family) dense woods skirt the foothills, and " a thick undergrowth of bracken, scrub 

 and heavenly bamboo affords ideal hunting ground for partridges." (Bland.) At Wang 

 Shapu, a country of low rolling hills covered with oak scrub heavy bags of pheasants may 

 be made. Between Liu Kuangtao and Yenchow are the rapids. Describing the nature of 

 the country here in Houseboat days in China, the author says "above the rapids the river runs 

 blue and clear between high hills, but the hills are too steep and too closely timbered for 

 shooting. Above the Gorges the country is much the same as below, low rolling foothills 

 stretching back from the river, where game is fairly plentiful." Nearly the whole way from 

 Yenchow to Huichow the river is bounded by high hills on each side. There they 

 seem to fall back and give place to a beautiful valley through which the river flows. 



The fauna and flora of the Chientang country are identical with those of the Clear 

 Water River. "Among the principal animals found in the province (Chekiang) suffice it to 

 mention," says Pere Richards, "the panther, tiger, wild boar, wolf, deer and several kinds 

 of monkey. Amongst the trees are the tallow and varnish trees, the pine, fir and camphor 

 trees, the bamboo, mulberry chestnut, azalea camellia, kidney-bean tree and rhodo- 

 dendron," all of which furnish fine cover and security for game, ground or flying. And 

 this is fully confirmed by Mr. Consul Clennell who in his official journey by land and water 

 from Hangchow to Wuhu had amplest opportunity to make himself accquainted with the 

 conditions, and who in addition to the animals enumerated above mentions in a letter to me 

 " wild cats, small panthers (p'ao tzii) bears and badgers." Besides this more serious game 

 are, of course, to be found pheasants, partridges, woodcock, quail and snipe, deer of both 

 the river and antlered descriptions and wildfowl innumerable of every conceivable variety. 



There is such a similarity between the stream that flows north from Changshankwang 

 and that which wends its way to Hangchow that the description of the Clear Water River 

 given by Mr. White, page 190, et seq. would almost equally do for the affluent of the 

 Chientang. Both rivers are bright clear waters flowing over sandy bottoms; rapids and 

 shallows offer exactly the same impediments to the foreign houseboat. They both flow 

 between well wooded hills, whose bases are formed of the densest covers, these nearer 

 hills again being backed up by snow capped mountains of altitudes varying from 3,000 to 

 5,000 feet. 



My authority for putting Changshankwan as the water shed as intermediate 

 between the Chientang and the Clear Water River is Major Turner, R.A., a most enthusiastic 

 and observant sportsman, who has recently been engaged in surveying in that region 

 for the British Government, and who has furnished me with much reliable information, 

 orographical, hydrographical and natural-historical, all first hand. 



It may perhaps, be considered that undue prominence has been given to these two 

 beautiful streams separated only by a common but negotiable range of hills. If so the 

 reason can only be because of the well-warranted belief that in the parallelogram made by 

 the meridians of I18 and 120 east longitude, and the parallels of 30 and 31 north latitude 



