7-2 A SPRIXG TOUR IX PORTUGAL. 



the present day conducts water to the thirsty city from a 

 distance of seven miles. Outside the walls this aqueduct 

 forms a very marked feature in the landscape, as in many 

 parts it stands high upon arches, and so stretches over 

 the valleys and from hill to hill. 



And now that I had seen the chief attractions of Evora, 

 including various fragments of Eoman work and several 

 old-fashioned churches, I was free to start off with my gun 

 for a long walk into that wild heath which surrounded it, 

 and through which I had resolved to wander from the first 

 moment of approaching the city. I was very soon beyond 

 the walls and the fields and gardens which encircle them, 

 and within an hour was threading my way through the 

 thick bushes and scrub and amidst the broken ground and 

 innumerable watercourses with which the heath is beset. 

 Now, there is a cl arm in every wilderness in my eyes, 

 which it is impossible to express in words : whether it be 

 in an African desert, an Alpine snow field, a Swedish 

 forest, a Norwegian fjeld, or an English down, it is in- 

 describably sweet to stand face to face with nature, and to 

 see no trace of man on any side. So it was in this Portu- 

 guese heath : the ground was by no means level, nor was 

 it smooth and easy walking; indeed, it was astonishing 

 how many deep dips and rapid rises one had to scramble 

 over in apparently a level plain ; then one had to thread a 

 tortuous course amidst the bushes, many of them armed 

 with very formidable thorns. The soil was everywhere 

 sandy, but in some parts rocky as well. Bees and flies 

 buzzed and hovered over every bush; caterpillars of strange 

 form and gigantic size, as well as of gay colour, crawled on 

 the ground; and of birds, larks of two species, buntings 

 and goldfinches and stonechats, were abundant, while the 

 pretty yellow Serin finches flitted by in little flocks, and 

 gave me a better opportunity than I had ever had before 

 of watching the movements and flight of these brilliant 



