Sporting Notes in the Far East. 115 



chiefly brought about by the excellent working, and almost human 

 instinct displayed by my dog, during twenty-four hours rummaging 

 amongst a goodly number of snipe and a few duck. 



Isahaya, itself, is situated about four miles from the head of 

 the Shimbari Gulf, and is sixteen and a half miles by a fair, but hilly 

 road from Nagasaki. On the first occasion of my visiting this 

 place ; I hired a horse fprice three yen) and started away at 4 

 a.m., my washerwoman supplying the boat to take me on shore; I 

 carried my own bag and cartridges, rode straight there, shot for 

 six hours, and returned to Nagasaki all in one day ; but as one of 

 my messmates remarked, the performance " was too much for one 

 in one day " and I thought so too. It took me two and a half 

 hours going, riding pretty fast, but coming back was quite a differ- 

 ent tale : I well knew that Japanese ponies were famed for being 

 wretched hacks, but the beggar I had, excelled them all ; and to 

 make matters worse, got very done : luckily the last four miles was 

 a good descent, so putting my neck in my pocket, I hustled him 

 into a broken canter, and his own impetus took him to the bottom. 



This means of locomotion being not good enough, next time I 

 took forty-eight hours leave, hired a two man rickie for the whole 

 period (hire, including "chow" two yen, fifty cents), and accompanied 

 by the dog, started off in a much more gentlemanly and luxurious 

 way. At Isahaya I put up at a tea house, being provided with my 

 own food and liquor, and my stay, with the exception of one rather 



