CO129-275 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1897 [1-5] — Page 90

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respectable in the crowd. They did not molest as in other

any

and beyond, way, as I said, their crowding round us, there was nothing to complain of in their behaviour,

Saturday, the 26th December, was a muggy day with a slight drizzle, which increased to a steady rain in the afternoon, and continued all the night. We had promised several sportsmen in Hongkong, if we had time, to explore a little of the country round Wu-Chau-fu, to see what the prospects were for pheasants. As we were not starting back till noon, Mr. WHITEHEAD and I landed at 7 a.m. on the opposite shore to Wu-Chau-fu, as, looking from the boat, there appeared to be some excellent cover on that side of the river, We had a very pleasant walk, but did not see a single bird. The cover was much too thick even for the dogs to penetrate, and they did not put one up. This walk had its amusing side in this

way.

The night before, we had told our head boatman that we were going to look for pheasants the next day. He told us he would procure a pheasant charmer to help us. Just before starting off, two Chinamen arrived alongside the boat, the one with a cage, covered over with a cloth, in his hand containing a bird something like a thrush, the other with a bundle or frame-work of small sticks. They informed us the bird was the charmer, and our head boatman inter- preted their modus operandi, which is as follows:-

:

On arriving at a cover, the cage is hung on to the branch of a tree, the cloth is taken off, and the bird begins to sing the sticks-about 2 feet long-to which is tied, by a kind of slip knot, some fine hair string arranged in a succession of hang-

man's nooses, 0

are artfully arranged and firmly

fixed in the ground near the cage. A pheasant, attracted by the song of the bird, comes out of the cover, sees a strange looking bird, so to speak, in its preserves, and being of a pugnacious character, immediately proceeds to attack the bird, gets his head in to one of the nooses, struggles, pulls the noose taut by his efforts to extricate himself, and so gets caught. We tried this truly ingenious dodge at the first cover we came to or at all events the effects of the fine singing of the bird, but after waiting patiently for a quarter of an hour and not a pheasant appearing, though we heard several calling, we gave it up as a bad job. We returned to the boat by noon and weighed anchor at once and proceeded down river on our return to Canton. The general impression was one of disappointment, both with the size of Wu-Chau-fu and the amount of trade seemingly going on. We had to anchor during the first part of the night on account of the fog that enshrouded us. Later on it cleared up and the next morning, Sunday, the 27th, was cold and cloudy with a biting north wind blowing. Just after breakfast we passed through the Shiu Hing Gorge which was the finest bit of scenery I had yet seen on the river. It was about a mile in length and narrow-about 400 feet-with wild looking mountains rising up from the water's edge to a height of about, the largest, 3,000 feet, I should say. It was very grand and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We anchored on the other side of the gorge to give Mr. WHITEHEAD and myself a chance of shooting, but this is certainly not much of a game country, and we were 4 hours ashore walking hard, but saw 3, and shot only two woodcock! At 3 p.m. we started again, and with a good tide under us, we made rapid progress. I have nothing to relate of our return voyage that I have not already told Your Excellency. We had no time to spare, as it was absolutely necessary for us to strike the rapids of Kum Chuck Creek when the tide was full. Our pilot feared shooting them with two heavy boats in tow at low water when the current runs at the pace of a mill stream. Shani Shui junction we again passed at night, we safely negotiated Kum Chuck rapids at 7 am. on the morning of Monday, the 28th December, and at 12.25 p.m. we arrived in Canton, 22 hours steaming from

Wa-Chau-fu.

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I caught the Hongkong boat at 5 p.m. and reached Hongkong at

3 a.m. on Tuesday, the 29th December, after having been 54 days away.

Mr.

To sum up briefly and give Your Excellency my impression of the West River and its possibilities for future trade. It is undoubtedly a fine broad river and easily navigable as far as Wa-Chau-fu for river steamers of a light draught, Its normal current, I believe is about two knots, but during the rainy season the river rises as much as from 40 to 50 feet and then it must be extremely rapid, but to what extent this would deter steamers from proceeding up the river, I do not know. What I saw of the river traffic itself was certainly disappointing, and those sanguine people who imagine that the opening of the river will be at once followed by a large volume of trade are, in my humble opinion, likely to be disappointed. It will be small at first, but once freed from the heavy squeezes at the numerous likin and other stations, grow it must, when you take into consideration the immense tract of country there is behind it to feed. Wu-Chan-fu town will be the great distri- buting centre of trade, destined to be ultimately very large. The only town of importance en route is Sam Shui, where the North River joins with the West. BREDON said that, as far as he could see, this was the only town where at present a Custom House Station would be likely to pay. Naturally there would be another at Wu-Chan-fu. You will probably ask how I account for the volume of trade noticed in the Hamilton Creek. My conjecture is that this must be the favourite route for the junk traffic from all parts of the country making for Canton, and hence the congestion of traffic. There should be two lines of steamers when the river is opened up-one from Hongkong to Wa-Chau-fu direct, and the other from Canton to Wu-Chau-fu. At present all the trade is done through Canton, but Hongkong would divert a large portion of this after a certain lapse of time. But by all means Your Excellency should recommend, as you have already done, that the West River be opened up, and that as soon as possible, for only those who have seen it, and the huge fertile country behind it teeming with population, cau form any estimate of the immense impetus to trade it would give, an impetus that would still further tend to enrich the already prosperous Colony of Hongkong.

3rd January, 1897.

C. C. PLATT,

Private Secretary.

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