XXXIV 



IN HOKKAIDO (YEZO) 

 1902 



niHEKE is a belief in England that to take a gun to Japan is 

 J_ useless, as no sport worth the trouble is to be got there ; 

 this, however, is a great mistake, at all events as far as Yezo, 

 the northern island, is concerned. In the other islands sport 

 with the gun used to be good, but now, except perhaps during 

 the migrating seasons of woodcock, duck, or goose, it has fallen 

 off terribly. What else indeed can be expected when in 1901 

 no less than 250,000 game licences were taken out in a popula- 

 tion of 36,000,000, men, women and children? Immense 

 numbers of birds are killed by snares, nets, and other 

 contrivances. 



But in Yezo very good sport is still to be got ; snipe of four 

 kinds are plentiful in the rice-fields, woodcock, ducks of almost 

 every variety breed in the marshes, and pass through in large 

 numbers during the migratory season in the autumn and spring, 

 as also geese and swans ; there are willow grouse, hares which 

 turn white in the winter ; pheasants, however, only inhabit the 

 other islands. For the rifle there are still some bears and deer, 

 but both are becoming very scarce indeed. The season in Yezo 

 opens on October 1st, in other parts of Japan on the 15th, and 

 for pheasants a fortnight later still. 



Yezo being much wilder, less populated, and more out of the 

 way, offers good sport among the above-named birds for those 

 who care to seek it ; the toil, however, and discomfort is very 

 great ; the small road-side inns, the only places to stay in, are 

 very bad indeed. And when a lake or marsh has been dis- 

 covered a very paradise for birds probably no boat is 



