Sporting Notes in the Far East. 159 



February, '88 : weather exceedingly bad, with no end of snow. But 

 I believe with all our ill fortune (and undoubtedly we had plenty) 

 we did as well, if not better, than any other party that were away 

 during the same tempestuous February. 



We commenced with bad omen there being three "Mock Suns" 

 at sunset on the eve of our departure; this most curious phenomena 

 being a sure forerunner of unsettled weather. 



Started on the loth at n p.m., and got up to Kah-see, by 9 a.m. 

 next morning ; a very quick passage (fifty-five miles) from 

 Shanghai. We were favoured with a strong fair wind. Snowed 

 and rained all day. Got up to Moka-doo, a village on the banks 

 of the Grand Canal twenty miles above Kah-shing, by the evening. 



Sunday i2th. Shot around Moka-doo, on the south side of the 

 canal ; a good deal of snow on the ground ; birds lying close, but 

 easy to be found, as they were all in the big flag reeds and coverts 

 adjacent to the clumps of big trees. Very hard and greasy going 

 owing to the wet. During the day I was unfortunate in losing my 

 cap (perhaps it was shooting on Sunday) during a hot pursuit after 

 a most athletic "mile runner' ; it was whisked off by the branch of a 

 mulberry tree, and on returning after the chase to pick it up, I was 

 just in time to see John Chinaman, with my head covering in his 

 hand, evidently intent on " breaking the record " towards the 

 nearest village. 



Moved the boat in the evening to Yung Shing. 



