to be picked up, so I
joined a party bent on trying their luck, and we prepared for a hard
day's work.

No one who has not tried it can have an idea of the fatigue of a day's
shooting at Chusan. Having a Chinese covered boat, we loaded her with
quite sufficient to support nature for twenty-four hours; and pulling
about four miles through the channels intersecting the islands, we
landed about daylight. Before us was a vast paddy field, into which we
plunged up to our knees in mud and water. As we approached one of the
dykes which convey the water for the irrigation, caution was observed,
not a word was uttered by one of the party, and our good behaviour was
rewarded by a brace of fine birds, which were deposited in the bag,
carried by a celestial under-keeper. Crossing the dyke, we continued to
wade through the paddy fields, shooting some plover and a red-legged
partridge, until we arrived at a Chinese village. We passed through it,
and fell in with a herd of water buffaloes, as they term them. One of
them charged furiously, but the contents of one of our barrels in his
eyes made him start in mid career; and having had quite enough into his
head, he turned to us his tail. These animals show a great antipathy to
Europeans, probably from not having been accustomed to their dress. Red,
of course, makes them furious, and, thanks to his jacket, a drummer of
one of the regiments was killed by these animals. Towards evening we
felt it quite impossible to wade any further; and although nightfall is
considered the best time for shooting ducks, we thought it was the best
time to return to the boat, which we did not regain, fatigued, hungry,
and covered with mud, till ten o'clock at night.

[Illustration: VIEW ON THE ISLAND OF POO-TOO.

(NEAR CHUSAN.)

F. M. DELT.

M. N. HANHART LITH. PRINTERS

LONDON; LONGMAN & CO. 1848]

One day, strolling in the country about four miles from Chusan, we fell
in with a very pretty little house surrounded with trees. The courtesy
usually shown to the English at Chusan induced us to enter it, that we
might inspect the premises. Its owner, a mandarin, was absent, but his
major-domo took us over the whole house. The round doors and
oyster-shell windows amused us greatly. The garden was ornamented with
artificial rocks, studded with flowering shrubs, with great taste. There
were two or three grottoes, in one of which was a joss; and an arbour of
lilacs and laburnums, in full bloom, gave a cha