THROUGH WILD EUROPE 201 



for I presently heard from B that the gun, rifle, 



pistol and cartridges had been duly delivered to him, 

 and that he was sending them on by steamer. This 

 was good news, though I did not want them delivered 

 to me at Corfu in case of fresh troubles with the 

 Greek Customs, so arranged to have them kept on 

 board the steamer while she went on to finish her 

 round at Constantinople and return, by which time 

 I expected to be able to leave again for Durazzo. 



The Lammergeier I had heard about was found 

 without any difficulty at a wine shop at the little 

 village of Achilleon, where the late Empress of 

 Austria had a palace which has been recently pur- 

 chased by the German Emperor. It was still in 

 immature plumage, as was to be expected, seeing 

 that it was only taken from the nest the year before. 

 This nest, I was told, was in the Greek mountains 

 on the mainland to the southwards. But the idea 

 I had had of going there was abandoned. The 

 winter had been of quite exceptional severity, and 

 the mountain ranges of Europe generally were quite 

 impassable with deep snow. From the island we 

 could see the snowy summits of the Albanian moun- 

 tains gleaming opposite, and I heard from some of 

 the English sportsmen who make Corfu their head 

 quarters for Woodcock and Wild Boar shooting ex- 

 peditions in Albania that there was quite sixteen 

 feet of snow in the mountains, and that the forests 



