INTRODUCTORY PREFACE ix 



upon the sport to be obtained, I know of none 

 which professes to deal at all seriously with the 

 large mammals about which so little is known. 



China, it may be safely prophesied, will never, 

 under the conditions which have so far prevailed, 

 become a popular country with the modern big 

 game hunter. He cannot dash off for a couple 

 of months' shooting in Kansu as he can to East 

 Africa. The distances are too great, the list of 

 game animals too small to entice him. With the 

 advent of railways, should these ever manage to 

 grope their way through the morasses of official 

 graft and peculation in which they are at present 

 submerged, matters will change to some extent, 

 and we may yet see advertised : " Takin Trips in 

 Twenty Days," and "Take your Camera to 

 Kansu." 



The reasons for this state of affairs are many. 

 In the first place, until recently, of the conditions 

 prevailing in the interior very little was known 

 even to long-established foreign residents ; the 

 Chinese themselves did nothing to encourage the 

 incursion of foreigners ; travel, at the best of times, 

 was slow, tedious, and uncertain ; game was and 

 is entirely confined to the mountainous regions, 

 where cultivation is impossible, and its distribution 

 in these regions was known to few. 



Lastly, and this point I must emphasise, there 

 is one absolute and indispensable essential to a 

 successful trip in China, a trustworthy and capable 

 interpreter. The foreigner is legitimate prey in 



