IN HOKKAIDO (YEZO) 283 



procurable nor any other means of getting at them. Where 

 roads exist a home on wheels, with tent, duck punt, or 

 collapsible boat attached, jwould greatly help to get good sport 

 in October and November, and pack ponies with tents in the 

 roadless districts, for thus only could the less frequented and 

 therefore the best country be reached with any degree of comfort. 

 However, the following trips with a gun were most enjoyable, 

 all being within easy reach of Hakodate. A good excursion 

 from there, the southern port, is to Yunokawa, distance about 

 4J miles, and object snipe, which here abound in the rice-fields 

 with which the country is covered for miles. A tram line runs 

 all the way, for the hotels at Yunokawa are popular summer 

 resorts, and the natural hot springs much frequented ; most 

 pleasant and enjoyable it was indeed after a day's shooting to 

 sit and soak in the hot water of the well-arranged baths. But 

 here, as indeed everywhere, a good dog is an absolute necessity, 

 and not owning one my bag was very small compared with that 

 of my friend who did. Indeed, in my case, " Allah was very 

 good to the little birds," as the Indian shikaree said. Simply 

 walking round and round the square rice patches on the very 

 narrow bank divisions between them for to go into them now, 

 with the crops nearly ripe, would never do is not sufficient to 

 make the snipe rise, and to find them when shot not by any 

 means an easy task. The same applies to quail in the thick 

 weeds and grass, potato, and bean fields. Unless many snipe are 

 seen, the endless circling round rice patch after rice patch, ever 

 balancing oneself on the slippery paths between them, with frequent 

 slides into irrigation rills, becomes very wearisome and monotonous, 

 and these rice-fields extend for miles and miles. However, we 

 got a good many common snipe, but only one of the large 

 " Austrian " variety, no others being met with. The latter pass 

 through earlier, the people say. Occasionally, but rarely, a jack 

 or painted snipe is seen. By religiously working each patch 

 with a good dog a very fair bag can be made. Here and there 

 three or four patches have been left unplanted, but remain full 

 of liquid mud; around them nets made of black string are 

 suspended from poles to catch any snipe attracted by the 

 glistening mud, while others are caught in them when the fields 

 are driven in the early morning. Altogether the poor birds have 

 a bad time of it ! Ducks are trapped in the same manner and 



