CHINESE SPORTSMAN AND WEAPONS 221 



out of the gun barrel, but the barrels are 

 seldom cleaned until the end of the season, 

 and sometimes never cleaned. 



The dress of the sportsman is as primitive 

 as his gun. He usually wears a pair of 

 straw sandals for boots and his clothing is 

 made of a very inferior grade of cloth. I 

 could not see that the sandals were any 

 protection against the scrub oaks and 

 briars which grew on the hillsides or the 

 swordlike grass of the plains, but there was 

 a lightness and noiselessness in the step 

 which showed that the heavy boot of the 

 foreigner would not serve him so well. The 

 clothing was no protection either. It seem- 

 ed that one so thinly clad would soon get 

 chilled through by the cold winds that 

 sweep the low lying plains between the 

 hills and shores of the river. 



It is seldom that the native sportsman 

 shoots over a dog. Occasionally a sports- 

 man will be accompanied with beaters, but 

 oftener his noiseless step and quick eye 

 find the game and bag it. A friend in- 

 formed me that on one occasion, at the 

 close of a cold December day, he was 

 walking near a lake when he saw a China- 

 man who was beckoning to him. As he 



