272 Lieut. R. M. Sperling on the 



turalistj its soft sandy stone of the Tertiary formation gives the 

 geologist great facilities for digging out the fossils which abound 

 there. The lover of birds will find plenty here in the spring 

 and autumn ; but there are no mammals, except a few weasels, 

 hedgehogs, and rabbits, mice and, of course, the eternal rat. 



In spring the climate is delicious, the atmosphere being so 

 clear that I have frequently seen Mount Etna, which is about 

 110 miles distant. If you wish to get a good idea of the place 

 about this time of the year, go into a valley fragrant with wild 

 mignonette, and blushing with clover and pimpernels; there 

 light your pipe, and, should the west wind have blown during 

 the night, from the dark shades of the carob-tree you will 

 probably hear 



" The merry Nightingale, 

 That crowds and hurries and precipitates 

 With fast, thick warble his delicious notes," 



congratulating himself on his safe arrival from Africa, whilst 

 the Spectacled Warbler floats singing in the air, and the Blue 

 Thrush flings out his deep monotonous trill from a distant wall; 

 besides which, if you don^t like sitting still, you may easily bag 

 ten or twelve Quails before breakfast during the shooting-season. 

 I don^t think any one would regret going to the Mediter- 

 ranean to shoot in the winter ; for there is capital sport in a 

 good climate, together with a sight of the classic celebrities of 

 olden times. Within sight of Prevesa, the timid Woodcock may 

 be flushed from the arching fern ; on the Plain of Sharon you 

 may break your neck boar-spearing, or shoot Eed-legged Par- 

 tridges (subject to the before-named drawbacks) on Mount 

 Parnassus, close to the "umbilicus orbis terrarum." In the 

 summer you can dofi" your coat, and fly the haunts of man, to lie 

 on your back beneath the pure light of the eastern stars, while 

 your yacht trembles and glides onward by towering Olympus or 

 Sappho's Leap, under the mingled influences of the myrtle-loaded 

 breezes and gentle tides that move in the violet sea. Or, should 

 your fancies not be romantic, depart straightway for Syria, " do" 

 Jerusalem, Baalbec, and Jordan under the auspices of a lying 

 but gorgeous dragoman, buy Latakia tobacco and a jasmine- 

 wood chibouque, wrought cunningly with gold wire and velvet 



