CHAPTER VIII A SHOOTING EXPEDITION（第八章完整英文原文）
PEREIRA now prepared for a shooting expedition in the mountains of Western Szechwan, a wild, mountainous country covered with dense scrub and bamboo, except on the higher slopes, and uninhabited except for a few visiting woodcutters and Chinese farmers. The shooting grounds were at altitudes of between 7000 and 13,000 feet. The game comprises boar, bear, roe, leopard, giant pandar, pandar cat, serow, wild dogs, and (on the highest ground) takin and blue sheep. What he particularly wanted to get was a giant pandar or pandar bear, as no European had ever shot one. But shooting in this region was not easy, as the jungle was thick and the local hunters were not keen and knew little of the habits of the game or where to find them. And for a man like Pereira with a weak spine the physical exertion of climbing very steep slopes and forcing a way through dense bush was great.
Although warned by the magistrate that the region was infested by brigands, Pereira left Kiungchow on July 19. As he could get no mules or chairs he engaged thirteen carriers, and he wound up the picturesque valley of the Ta‑ho between low wooded hills. Farther on the going became very rough, and owing to heavy rain all streams were swollen. Pereira therefore exchanged his heavy boots for the sandals of the country. Often he had to cross a mad, raging torrent. The path was narrow and steep, leading up and down hill‑sides, sometimes over uneven rocks, sometimes over rough shingle in a river‑bed. Leeches, too, were an additional discomfort.
Having established himself in the valley of the T'ung‑ch'ang Ho, a fierce mountain torrent, Pereira set out on July 30 on a five days' trip to try and get a giant pandar. He limited his transport to four coolies. His baggage consisted of the outer fly of his tent to serve as a tente d'abri, a waterproof sheet, a Gladstone bag, wash‑basin, rifle, camera, water‑bottle and some food. And he was accompanied by his cook and two or three hunters who, as well as the coolies, bore various weapons ranging from a Mauser rifle to flint‑locks, and what resembled a cross between a carbine and a pistol flint‑lock. He travelled south‑west up the Tung‑tzuchi valley between high hills. Houses and cultivation were soon left behind, and the hillsides were covered with trees and undergrowth while the valley bed was covered with shrub and wild flowers.
He halted at an elevation of 7480 feet, at the foot of a hill over which he intended to shoot. The small mountain torrent roared below. His fellows found some rough accommodation in a rickety mountaineer's hut, whilst with logs and stones he fitted up his outer fly, protecting part of one of the open ends with a piece of oilcloth and lying on a waterproof sheet. And in this flimsy shelter and by means of an elaborate system of trenching he was able to withstand a heavy thunderstorm which burst on them in the evening.
The next day he climbed the Ta‑pan‑au (8640 feet) to the N.N.E. in a vain search for pandar. Though not very steep, after the first mile the going was tedious. He had to force his way through bamboo scrub from 2 to 4 feet high. The hill‑side was dense with trees whose branches were often too high to step over and too low to get under. Creepers would catch him round the leg. Branches which looked substantial would give way. Also the ground was very slippery. In such a country there was hardly a chance even of seeing a pandar. And for the small hunting dogs to drive one to him, even if they found one, could not be expected. A pandar might easily pass within 10 yards without being seen. Naturally, therefore, Pereira's search was fruitless.
On another hill which he climbed on August 1 his search was equally vain. It also was covered with bamboo scrub and trees. And his hunters were not keen on their job and knew nothing of the pandar's way or his likely haunts. And as he had not come across a single track or sign of an animal, Pereira returned to Chung‑tsui‑shang.
On August 6 he set off westward, and after a very stiff climb crossed the Weng‑ting Ta Pass (10,170 feet), from which he had grand views down the valley he had been ascending. Then he had a long descent for over 4 miles, constantly crossing a dashing hill torrent. At the end of the march he put up with Father Liu‑P’ei, a Chinese Catholic priest, in a charming mission house situated on the hill‑side, 600 feet above the valley and with a court inside filled with beautiful flowers. Here Pereira was laid up for fifty‑three days with a blistered foot, due to his walking in sandals. And his stay was not rendered any the pleasanter by the weather, for it rained nearly every day in September.
At last he set out after pandar once more on September 28. He took with him his two boys, three hunters and seven coolies and a man with a kind of chair on which he could be carried over rivers. The country was so bad he still could not wear boots, but used some local sandals which he found very comfortable. He proceeded nearly due north up the valley of the Teng‑ch’ih‑kou. There were a few Chinese hovels scattered over the valley, each with its patch of maize cabbages or buckwheat. But Pereira wondered how their inhabitants could endure the severe winter, as the huts were ill‑built of planks and brushwood and had many openings to the weather.
After going 11 miles up the valley Pereira halted for the night and put up his bed under an overhanging rock by the stream, whilst the rest of the party spent the night under other rocks. The next day he left the main valley and ascended a smaller tributary valley on the west and pitched a tent about a mile up it. He then for some days climbed about the neighbouring hills, often in drenching rain, and frequently along a slippery track on the face of a precipice. Taking with him a blanket and provisions he would sleep under some rock at night. And he would search all the day for game. But with the exception of the fleeting hindquarters of some deer and the tracks of takin he saw nothing. His only compensation was the beauty of the scenery. There were rocky gorges and beautiful cascades and trees with foliage of every shade of green, red and yellow. He doubted whether there was any country in the world where hunting was more difficult and arduous. The Chinese are not naturally good hunters. They are restless and fidgety when waiting for game. And their statements are unreliable. After countless investigations Pereira came to the conclusion that the best time for pandar is from November to March. Then the snow drives them down from the inaccessible mountain‑tops to the lower slopes where they can find food. Pereira's hunter had assisted in killing two or three pandars in five years. Another old hunter told him that they usually hunted them in parties of six or seven. Pandar skins are not as valuable as skins of the takin and serow and so they are less sought after. These hunters say that they call in May and their young are born in July ; that they sleep in tree hollows, the male feeding on the bamboo stalks and the female on bamboo leaves. After a takin has been killed the pandars come and feed on the remains.
After nine days' vain search for game Pereira returned to his headquarters at Teng‑ch'ih‑kou. And on October 11 he started off south‑west down the valley on a second hunting trip. But shortly he turned off westward up a side valley thinly inhabited by Chinese, who in their fight for existence are always spreading out north and west, wherever the ground can be cultivated, and slowly pressing back the natives. The path rises and falls along the hill‑side. The stream in this valley was bigger than the Teng‑ch'ih‑kou stream, and either this or one farther south near Mu‑p'ing is the chief branch of the headquarters of the Ya River, that mad mountain torrent which everywhere runs in wild rapids from its upper reaches till it joins the T'ung River to the west of Kiatingfu. Pereira was surprised to find a banana tree at 6000 feet, and he also saw lacquer trees, which the Chinese were busily tapping. He spent the night in a hovel of wooden planks with a roof of bamboo rafters held down by stones on the top; and he seems to have attracted the attentions of the Chinese to more than the usual extent. They watched him consume some eggs and vegetables with as great a thrill as an English crowd would watch a close Derby finish.
On October 12 he climbed 2700 feet to a height of 9180 feet to a shelter on the upper slopes of the Hsü‑chia‑shan. Round the Chinese hovel the trees had been cleared to a considerable extent. But on the heights the forest was dense. And from his camp he had a beautiful view across the valley to the high tree‑covered hills to the north. The following day the dogs put up a serow, but drove him away so that Pereira never even had a glimpse of him. Some wood‑cutters said they had seen a pander hereabouts a month previously. But still no game appeared, and on October 17 Pereira returned to Teng‑ch 'ih‑kou determined to try new hunting grounds and new hunters.
His third hunting trip he made on October 20, this time seeking takin. He started northward up the Tsao‑shan and pitched his tent that night, just before heavy rain came on, at a height of 9400 feet. Continuing his climb the next day by a very rough uneven trail, through woods and deep undergrowth and along a razor‑shaped ridge, he reached a ledge at 12,230 feet where he spent the night. And now at last he had the first signs of pandar‑‑some droppings. And he sent his hunters out to track it.
Starting in thick mist and rain on the following day, he had an awful descent down an exceptionally steep and rocky hill affording very little foothold. He then had to wade through dense soaking bamboo. But after 4 miles of this very rough going he reached a shanty, and beyond it met with two grass‑cutters who stated that six days before, whilst they were at work, a pandar had entered the shanty and eaten their food. Hope revived in Pereira. He was evidently in the place for hunting, and before the end of the day he came across traces of pandar, takin and serow. But the Chinese hunters disappeared and all Pereira was able to shoot‑‑and it was with the first shot he fired with his rifle that year‑‑was a hill cat (shan‑mao), a beautiful little animal with black legs and belly, dark brown back, a long bushy tail, and a white mark on the face. He is known as the small pandar. He measured 50 inches from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail. The tail was 22 inches long, the legs
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inches. He was
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inches round the belly and 5 inches from ear to ear. The face was brown on top and white underneath and there was a blackish stripe from each eye. The ears were black on top and white underneath. The skin is regarded as of more value than the skin of the pandar. The animal is uncommon, and Pereira's hunters, though they had seen some, had never shot one.
After this it came on to snow hard. He feared being snow‑bound in this uninhabited region, and was about to return to his headquarters, when the hunters returned to say they had cornered a serow high up in the cliffs a long way off, and they wanted leave to shoot it as they said Pereira could never get to the place. Cold and miserable, he was at first inclined to agree, but eventually decided to go on the off‑chance of getting a shot. After 2 miles of very rough going he reached the spot, and the serow was pointed out to him high up among the cliffs. He could hardly see it except now and then when it came from behind a rock to look over a precipice. It was only while standing that he could see it, and he had to fire at 300 yards range, one man behind him and another supporting his arm. But he managed to shoot her and she fell over the precipice. She was 80 inches long, 46 inches round the body, and the length of horns was
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inches. The serow is the only representative of its family. The Americans call it the goat antelope. And it looks something between a goat and a deer. The Chinese call it ai‑lu or shan‑lu, that is, precipice donkey or hill donkey.
The return journey to headquarters at Teng‑ ch’ih‑kou, over a mountain 12,000 feet high, was very trying, as he had to wade through deep snow in socks and sandals. In consequence, he had four toes of his right foot partially frost‑bitten. And as this precluded all further possibility of hunting he decided to return to Chengtu. Leaving Teng‑ch’ih‑kou on November 7, carried on the back of a coolie, he descended the valley by a fairly good path. All the way he passed small Chinese villages and hovels with crops. At 23 miles he reached Mu‑p’ing, a small Chinese walled town. The native prince (with a few prehistoric Mantzu men as a guard) lived in a yamen surrounded with a wall on a hill‑side just north of the town.
Ten miles beyond Mu‑p'ing the hills are lower and open out into a picturesque little valley covered with small Chinese villages, paddy fields and trees. His escort here consisted of six Mantzu soldiers belonging to the semi‑Mongol‑Tibetan tribes who entered Tibet from Mongolia. With the exception of a few soldiers and passing natives these were the only Mantzu he came across in the whole of his hunting trip. They were dressed in old‑fashioned Chinese uniforms and retained their pigtails.
Leaving the main Ya‑ho valley on November 9 he crossed the divide separating it from the Ta‑ho branch, and on the far side passed through a very deep gorge with precipitous cliffs. And the following day he crossed the divide between the Ya and the Min Rivers and gradually descended to Kao‑hsin‑ch ang. Beyond this he passed down a fertile valley full of farms and reached Kao‑ chia‑chang, which he had left on July 20. From there he followed his old route and on November 14 reached Chengtu and saw the first white man for four months. His dogged efforts to shoot a pandar had not been successful, as he got so little assistance from Chinese hunters. He had, however, obtained some small reward for his exertions in the rare and beautiful “ small pandar ”.
注：原文拼法：giant pandar（书中对大熊猫的旧式拼写，现代 giant panda）；small pandar（小熊猫）。
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