NOTES FKOM MY DIARY. 259 



the dog crossed a creek after a wounded cock pheasant, dropped by his master, and 

 brought it back in quite first-rate style. In the evening the boat brought up between 

 Monksijow and Zemingdong, and it being very hot and close the windows were left open. 

 On looking for his watch in the morning Craven discovered that it had disappeared together 

 with his kaki coat and two bottles of sherry, all of which were on his side of the boat. 

 From my side I merely lost a pair of spectacles, my braces and a silk handkerchief. My 

 loss was nothing but Craven's was a serious one, for his watch, chain and seal, the gifts of 

 his brother, had cost over £40. The theft was reported to the Kading authorities who sent 

 some runners to enquire into matters, but without results, as also to the British Consulate 

 and the Municipal Police. The latter promptly took the "matter in hand," and there it 

 remains unto this day. Doubtless the robbery was the work of creek sneaks. These 

 gentry in their shallow, silent punts can with ease sneak noiselessly alongside a houseboat, 

 scoop it of its portable contents with their hooked bamboos, and as silently steal away. To 

 follow them would useless, for these punts are very fast, and when occasion requires can be 



carried across country or hidden away with consummate ease. 



« * « » 



Ever since I can remember the large bamboo copses in the Taitsan neighbourhood 

 have been unfailing finds for woodcocks. I visited them several times in 1890 with different 

 friends, Jas. McKie, A. Stewart, A. Shewan, W. Phipps and others, and my diary shows that 

 we got 73 birds altogether during the season. From a certain opening in a particular copse on 

 the Nakong Creek just before it joins the Taitsan broadwater a cock was invariably flushed. 

 Walter Phipps and I got one there regularly every week. Happening to mention this to 

 Phipps' brother Herbert, he said he would like to confirm what meantime he did not doubt, 

 and when he came up from Foochow the following autumn he went up-country with us. 

 Arrived at the copse he was placed in position. Out came Mr. Woodcock only to be put into 

 the shooter's pocket. The same performance w^as gone through the next day, and I am 

 absolutely certain may be repeated until such time as the copse shall have become a smiling 

 cotton field. It was during this trip that a rather amusing incident occurred. Both the 

 Phipps were pretty heavy men. They were about to cross the Taitsan Creek in my dinghy 

 to join the boats at the Fish Weir when I came up and was invited to make a third. I 

 jumped on board and so did my dog Beau who in the act got between my legs and tumbled 



me with gun and cartridges backwards into six feet of water. 



* * » * 



Three years ago I met with a curious boat accident. I was returning from a long 

 shoot, and at the time travelling at the rate of nine miles an hour before a very fresh north- 

 westerly breeze in the straight run from Soochow to Quinsan, when we were nearly thrown 

 out of our bunks by the sudden heeling over, at an alarming angle, of the boat. It was 

 2.30 A.M. It appears that while building the railway bridge the Chinese Telegraph people had 

 joined the two cofferdam heads with a copper wire, and for a time to warn boats of the danger 

 had hung flags on the wire during the day and had kept the gongs going at night time. For 

 the reason I take it that as there had been no accident heretofore these warning signals had 

 been removed, and so it came to pass that my boat mast was cut through like a knife would 

 cut a pat of butter. I got up from a warm bed, I remember, dragged on a dressing gown and 

 went ashore to make enquiries. All I could gather was that the engineer's boat was a mile 



