316 SHOOTING IN CHINA. 



could. It was some time before we got over the chaff 

 about this little event and the cordial way of receiving 

 our friends ! 



When wading through the rice-fields looking for 

 snipe one autumn afternoon, I was surprised to come 

 across a Chinaman standing on the side or dry bank of 

 the field, with a fishing-rod in his hand, and a fine line 

 leading from the end of his bamboo into the rice-field. 

 What can he be fishing for there, I thought ; some very 

 diminutive fish, as nothing a couple of inches long 

 could swim in the few inches of water that covered the 

 muddy soil ; the rice also stood quite two feet high. I 

 had not long to wait to have my curiosity satisfied. A 

 bite, a jerk, and out came a frog, and looking into his 

 basket I found he had more than a dozen there already. 

 These Chinamen are funny fellows T thought, but after 

 all, if he was bent on fishing for frogs, or rather on 

 catching frogs, I daresay he did so in this manner 

 quite as quickly, and certainly far more cleanly, than 

 going into the paddy after them. Canton frogs are by 

 no means to be despised, and I have eaten an excellent 

 curry made from their hind legs. 



In speaking of shooting in the south, I must not 

 omit the small pigeon, which is plentiful in most of 

 the cultivated valleys. They afforded me many an 



