The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-11-29
Sport in CHINA,

. ing u service of over five.and.twent
t years in her Majesty's navy, 1 thin
, China bcars the palm for "wild shoot
ing" BY the term "wild shooting"
must be understood to mean that mos
enjoyable Of all sport, going out with
out the least Knowing what your bag
likely to consist of at the end Of tn
day. There is, of course, great pleasur
III a day devoted to either pheasant
partridge, rabbit, or wild-fowl shoot
ing; but to my idea day upon whicl
all, 0r nearly all Of the above are me
with, and in which you can never tel
whnt ganie'ts likely to give you chanc
: next, is to the sportman and naturalIs
tho acme OF enjoyment. And for thi
glorious uncertainty commend M me, above
, all places, to China.
When commanding II. NJ. S. C
was stationed for over a year at Can
Lon as ''Senior Otiicer," and as the dut,
was not very arduous l was frequently
aDle TO enjoy my favorite sport. 10 &c
tnls l generally organized party, con
Slstlng OF one or two of the British resi-.
dentS, some or my officers and mvself
and usually hired Il "housc-boatn for
the trip. These house-boats are Simply
mastless junks of about twenty tons
Durden, having OH the after part of the
| deck u suit OF three room.like cabin
furnished with tables, Chairs, and lock-.
erS, and OF course with the inyariable
shrine and pot-bellied joss, without
which no Chinese boat, however small
IS ever seen. They are propelled either
ny long sweeps or poles, but more fre-
quently drift up or down with the tide.
| ana are really most comfortable. Their
crew generally consists of two men and
two women, but also took nv own
attendant sampan, with it's crew of
''English Mary" (of whom more pre-
sently) and her four girls, who puryey-
| ed and cooked for us.
All the SampanS at Canton are man
ned by wOmen-an elderly one as cox.
swain, and two or four young girls to
pull. "English Mary" was, and trust
still is, always employed by the senior
officer to attend upon him, to take him
to and from the shore, to pilot him
through the city, to act as intcrnreter
between him and the tradespeoDle. and
III fact to do everything to add to his
comfort.
at daybreak one bright November
morning a party of SIX guns. besides
myself, embarked i'll our house-bo,t
and with Il stlong flood tide turned ouf,
OF the river up the Fat shan Creek:
aided by our sweeps we soon reached a
smaller arm or creek, which is known
by the English name of ''the brook ),
and which is IL noted place for wild
duck. At about two miles from it's
entrance we moored the boat to the
@6ayp itJhyeg vaiyil]ed le l.. eenr ,paSSttx feS
further up the brook, the rest landing
in the paddy fields on the left hand
side. Or this latter party made one.
We had not advanced ten yards before
snipe were rising all round us, and all
guns were going merrily. No occasion
there to pick your ground, for every
dry bit held its bird and we soon found
| our dogs were membranes, 50 we
coupled them up, rescrving them for
later i'll the day.
On we went, working straight across
the paddy fields, towards hill about
two miles distant, on which is a large
battle-ground, thickly planted with
dwarf evergreens, and surrounded with
groves of lichce trees, well-known CO.
YER for pheasants. BY the time we
reached the foot of it cur game-bags
had become considerably heavier, and
our cartridge-belts corrcspondingly
lighter. On arriving ut the end of the
paddy fields we determined to have u
quiet pipe and IL $. and B. before at
tacking the long tails, and while 80 do
| ing took the opportunity Of examining
the contents Of our bags, which con-
sisted of thirty couple of snipe, egh-
teen couple OF painted snipe-a much
larger bird ,--and four and IL half couple
oil teal, not including some score or SO
of both kinds of snlpe shot by one of
our boatmen, with matchbox about
eight feet long, with which he shot
from his hip in II marvellous manner.
| Having finished our pipes, ETC., we
uncoupled the dogs, and setting our
faces TO the hill commenced beating TO-
wards the graveyard. In 4 very few
moments II whir-r-r, followed by Il dou-
BILE report on my lGit, signallcd that the
| sport had begun, and almost immcdia
tely Il fine old golden cock gave me a
lessoh il: patience for blazing ut him
too quickly. l missed him clean will
both barrels, and had the JOY of seeing
him fall to my next nelghbor. We
worked the lichecs well, and then beat
over the mouldering remains of u past
generation Of Celestials, and by the
time we arrived at the pagoda that
crowned the hill, we all felt that it was
time for "tiftln" and repose; so, taking
possession of lower room, Mary made
IL fire, and in a few moments had curr,
and rice preparing for us. In the mean
while we explored the pagoda and it.
surroundings.
While enjoying our curry we were
visited by very smartly-dressed young
lady, who, Mary informed us, had beer
} visiting the tomb Of her ancestors il
} the graveyard below. She was dressed
in something more like a frock than tn
usual jacket, of brown quilted silk, witt
. a border Of red and black, and ligh
| blue silk trousers very wide in tho leg
reaching just down TO her ankles. lie
hair was plastered back from her face
3 with two great rolls on each side, an
3 on very high structure at top, with sc
+ vcral large globe-headed gold pin
: through 1t. Her small dcformcd fee
t were covered with little shoes abou
five. or perhaps six iuches long, wit
very thick soles, and the upper part
over the unnaturally high instep, on
0 broidered in different cOlors, the foe
Q being tightly bandaged to preserve til
t deformity intact. 10 enable her t
n walk, or rather h0bble along, she la
= | to S,lDDOrt heraalf with q lOnl, ham hr