INTRODUCTORY 9 



I was so busy in China that I had very little 

 time for recreation of any kind, but I was able 

 to gratify to the full my propensity for wandering, 

 and made most extensive tours in connection 

 with my work. During the five and a half years 

 that I was in China I visited most of the important 

 salt-works on the coast from Korea to Tongking, 

 and also made two expeditions to West China, 

 visiting the provinces of Yunnan, Szechuan, and 

 Kansu. In the autumn also, when the weather 

 was favourable, I usually spent three weeks or a 

 month under canvas, to have some vigorous 

 exercise and keep myself in health. The breezy 

 uplands on the border of Mongolia inhabited by 

 these sheep offered a pleasant hunting-ground. 

 The country is sparsely populated, is within 

 easy access of Peking, and the people are accus- 

 tomed to tents. In other parts of China the 

 intense curiosity of the people makes tent life 

 rather trying. 



On my way to Yunnan in January 1915, in 

 the course of a brief shooting expedition on the 

 northern frontier of Annam, which was kindly 

 arranged for me by the acting Governor-General 

 of Indo-China, I shot, in company with M. 

 Jardin, one of the Secretaries to the Government, 

 a gaur or bison by moonlight, but unfortunately 

 the beast turned out to be a cow. The jungle 

 was too dense for stalking, and the only chance 

 of sport was to wait in a clearing, which the 

 animals frequently visited in the evening. I 

 had shot a small bull two days before ; and the 

 bison did not, in consequence, come out from the 

 forest into the clearing in which we were waiting 



