YANG-TZE RIVER 147 



About sunset the geese fly from the marshes 

 to roost in the dry plains, and then if the 

 shooter is properly concealed he may enjoy 

 an hour of first class flight shooting. 



It is not advisable to undertake to shoot 

 wildfowl in the Yangtze river. They 

 always seem unusually wild, and it is 

 almost impossible to approach them within 

 shooting distance. The shooter will be far 

 more successful if he shoots about the small 

 lakes and the marshes, and he should have 

 with him a pair of long legged rubber boots 

 as these will invariably prove convenient. 



When the ducks and geese are very 

 clever and can see for half a mile that a 

 gun is not a bamboo pole the shooter can 

 take advantage of such intervals of wisdom 

 and shoot deer and pheasants. 



There are many deer in the valley, but 

 they are small and the average weight is 

 scarcely more than 30 Ibs. Some of them 

 have tusks like a wild-boar and hence the 

 Chinese call them hog deer. They feed on 

 the young grass in the plains and I have 

 seen, from the deck of a steamer, several 

 feeding together. When one is out, spe- 

 cially after pheasants, these little deer are 



