Sporting Notes in the Far East. 143 



TIENTSIN. 



In agricultural parlance, snipe are the principal production of 

 Tientsin; the seasons being the last weeks of April and August, the 

 first fortnights in May and October, and the whole of September. 



During the height of the seasons in a good year, I do not 

 suppose that there is a place in the whole of China, so resorted to 

 by snipe in fact one might say, they arrive in shoals : a bag of 

 eighty or a hundred couple to one gun, being not at all a rare 

 occurrence. 



One of the best places is the French Marsh ; which consists of 







a large area of waste land, composed of a succession of lagoons 

 and swamps. 



The nearest end of the marsh lies nine and a half miles from 

 Tientsin, on the proper left bank of the Pei-ho ; it is reached by 

 a fairly good road. 



The easiest and simplest way of locomotion to the French marsh, 

 is by donkey or pony, with a guide also mounted, to point out the 

 way ; after the first visit the latter's services will be quite 

 unnecessary. 



On arrival at the first lagoon, sportsmen are invariably met by one 

 of the many " snipe boys " (residing near at hand), who from long 

 habit will guide them to the most favoured haunts of the " wiley 

 ones," in a manner far better than I, by any number of explicit 

 directions, can possibly set forth. 



