382 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



breakfasted on board the Peninsular and Oriental Company's 

 beautiful steam- vessel Erin, then lying in the river, several 

 of the officers of which were to accompany us ; and a more 

 splendid dejeune it was difficult to imagine, even in this land 

 of profuse hospitality. We afterwards embarked in a large 

 flat-bottomed sailing boat, and went several miles down the 

 river, and having landed in a sampan on the muddy beach 

 below the embankment, the crew were ordered to keep off and 

 on until they were hailed by us from the shore. We then 

 proceeded to explore the interior of the adjoining country, 

 and having followed the banks of a canal, through standing 

 crops of beans, wheat, barley, and other grain, we arrived 

 near a village where the inhabitants were employed in 

 irrigating the surrounding fields by means of very ingenious 

 wooden chain-pumps, worked by water buffaloes. Many of 

 these fields were sown with vetches, seeds, and clover, and 

 we had scarcely set foot upon the first spot of this description, 

 when the peculiar whistle and whir of the snipe was heard in 

 every direction ; in fact, the green and moist surface of the 

 earth, in which we sank nearly up to our knees at every step, 

 seemed to be covered with them. We had nothing to do 

 for many minutes but to load and fire as fast as we could, 

 sometimes killing two birds at a shot. 



We continued this kind of sport until the birds were 

 driven away from the immediate spot on which we were 

 shooting ; and our guns were so hot that we were glad to sit 

 down under the shade of some trees, near the village, and 

 wash them out. Indeed the weather in the middle of the 

 day was now excessively sultry, the sun very powerful, and 

 we were not sorry to refresh ourselves with that universal 

 eastern luxury pale ale, a plentiful supply of which we had 

 carried with us. Our party consisted of four; with the 



exception of Mr. A , none very first-rate shots ; and 



probably not more than an hour had elapsed since the com- 



