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CHAPTEK XXX. 



MEMORABILIA. 



And it may be that in days to come it will give delight to recall these incidents. 

 Forsan et hcec olim meminisse juvabit. — Vibgil. 



'TpHIS chapter must necessarily lose much of the interest that otherwise might attach to it 

 * because of the poverty of the materials of which it is constructed. The collection of 

 facts is at all times an occupation entailing both time and trouble, and the present attempt 

 to save from utter oblivion some of the almost forgotten shooting exploits of earlier years 

 has been rendered none the less easy from the fact that well kept, reliable diaries are not 

 to be come across, and that many of those who could have thrown some light on the sport 

 of the past have unhappily left us, — some never to return. Still it has been possible to rake 

 together a few authenticated records of good things that have been done with the gun in 

 the Yangtze valley, and they are now unearthed in the sincerest hope that, few as they are, 

 they may induce some of our more constant up country goers to jot down occasionally 

 incidents of which they must be witnesses, and give of their abundance for the pleasure and 

 enjoyment and profit of those whose lot may hereafter be cast in this country. If so, this 

 attempt to keep alive some of the pleasant memories of happy bygone shooting days will 

 certainly, in some small degree, have served its purpose. 



PIGS. 



Good Luck and Good Shooting. — In the winter of 1883 Mr. and Mrs. Henry Morriss were up- 

 country on pig intent, A fruitless week of really hard work (for on one occasion 

 they did not return to the boat until 10 o'clock at night, in the hill country near 

 Chinkiang) so disheartened them that they had given up in despair all hopes of 

 ever seeing a pig, and gave orders to the lowdah to move on. Early next morning 

 the dog-boy awakened his master with the welcome cry of "Yah-chu." Here is 

 Mr. Morriss's graphic account of what then happened: "I jumped up, and on looking 

 out I saw five wild-boar close to the boat. I slipped on my boots, seized four 

 cartridges and my Maynard and bolted out. It was snowing hard, but I did not think 

 of that. I ran over the slippery plough-land, but could not get within shot, when 

 to my delight they suddenly stopped and looked to right and left, and I rightly 

 concluded that they had been checked by a creek. I ran in a paralled line and came 

 to a cross creek. The porkers now turned towards me. Beyond a small bush about a 



