SHANGHAI. 381 



culty in overtaking her in our little gondola, and found our 

 captain had returned and brought a pilot with him, that he 

 had been chartered by a mercantile firm to take a cargo of 

 tea and silk to England, and that we should probably be 

 detained two or three months at Shanghai. This was by no 

 means disagreeable news to me, as I was very anxious to see 

 something of the interior of this curious and interesting 

 country, and could not have arrived in the north of China at 

 a better period than during the comparatively cool spring 

 months, although not the best time for shooting, with one 

 exception, that of snipes, which appear in immense quantities 

 for a few weeks in the beginning of the month of May, and 

 during the time that the inhabitants irrigate the land from the 

 various ditches and canals, previous to sowing rice or paddy. 

 Having given a short description of the settlement and 

 city of Shanghai, in a little volume of Travels I published at 

 the commencement of the year 1857, and it having been so 

 much better and more ably described by other writers, I 

 shall say no more on that subject, except that I was treated 

 with princely hospitality by several of the resident British 

 merchants of that place, and found several fellow-sportsmen 

 amongst them who were kind enough to initiate me into the 

 best localities and most agreeable modes of carrying on the 

 war against the snipes, and that during several days' shoot- 

 ing I never saw such enormous quantities of these birds in the 

 same period, and over the same space of ground. The very 

 best sport I have ever witnessed in India does not form an 

 exception. The full snipe is rather larger than they are 

 generally found in Europe, and there are no painted birds, as 

 in India. The solitary snipe is also frequently seen. The 

 first expedition I made was in company with a merchant,* 

 and the most determined sportsman in the settlement. We 



Mr. Aspinall. 



