258 WITH BOAT AND GUN IN THE YANGTZE VALLEY. 



a spaniel. Our intention was to have a day over the hills, but rain coming on heavily drove 

 us into a cave at the top of the Mootoo quarry, where we tiffined, and remained some time 

 awaiting a clearing up of the weather. We noticed that a pool of dark looking water had 

 formed in a depression of the granite ; but thought nothing of it. All our dogs were with us. 

 Rain continuing, and holding out no promise of ceasing, we made tracks for Shanghai. In 

 five days after our arrival not a single one of our five dogs was alive. Was it the water 

 or what that so quickly carried them off ? 



* * * * 



A laughable accident happened to me once in the Soochow Creek. It was in April 

 and I was snipe shooting. Just above high water mark on the creek there was a long low 

 embankment and my dog Turk, a black setter, came to a stiff point. At the time I was 

 standing in soft mud at the water's edge awaiting results. Suddenly I heard a snort which 

 came from a water buffalo who had risen from his bed on the sheltered bank, and the 

 next moment my alarmed dog bolted back though my legs capsizing me backwards into 

 the creek with my loaded gun. I philosophically accepted the inevitable, held tightly on to 

 my gun, and landed as soon as I could get a foothold, not a whit the worse for my 

 unexpected bath, but I had rather that it had not happened for there was a fair number of 

 birds about, and my wet cartridges lost me a lot of time in loading and extraction. 



^ 'P ^ * 



Daly and I were on the Undine bound on a three weeks' shoot. H. Vinay and his 

 companion were going to join their boat at the upper Boat House and drove out to meet it, 

 and we purposed travelling together for a time. On our arrival at the Boat House Vinay's 

 boat had not turned up though it was following us up from Shanghai. A little later the 

 lowdah came on with the news that the boat in attempting to come through the Stone Brigde 

 had struck a buttress and gone to the bottom. Fancy the situation ! boat, guns, bedding and 

 a full stock of provisions and liquors peacefully resting on the bottom of the creek. It is 

 needless to say that trip was a failure as far as -Vinay and friend were concerned. 



On another occasion in the autumn I was up at the Hills with Messrs. Lang, Rice and 

 Weld. As we were finishing dinner a houseboat came up to us, and its owner who was a 

 common friend to all of us, Augustus Broom, asked if he might join us. He came on board 

 Lang's boat where we were seated and bade his own follow astern. We were in the midst of 

 a pleasant chat when the lowdah came in to the cabin and told us that Broom's boat had 

 " spoilem." It appears that she had struck a sunken bridge-pile, which had gone right 

 through her bottom. Broom was a philosopher. It was of no use crying over spilt milk, 

 so he merely laughed at the accident, and came down with us as a passenger. Three weeks 

 elapsed before that boat reached Shanghai, and then she was discovered to be not worth 

 repairing. 



W V V 5r 



"Ships are but boards: there be land-thieves and water-thieves." In October 1901, 

 I was Mr. James Craven's guest and we went to the Zemingdong marshes in his boat 

 the Wharfe to see what they would yield and how his newly acquired pointer Gip, derived 

 from my own imported strain, promised to shape. The bag was modest enough, but 

 my host had good reason to be satisfied with his purchase for at the first time of asking 



