370 Rev. H. B. Tristram's Notes from Eastern Alfferia. 



scarcely yet begun to work systematically. The first crop of cork 

 in these forests is considered almost valueless^ owing to the 

 hardness of the bark on the old trees ; they should be barked 

 regularly every seven years, before the cork becomes too hard. 

 The Arabs injure its quality and often damage the trees by 

 firing them in order to make them peel more readily. When 

 the working of these forests has become systematized, they ought 

 to yield enormous profits, as the companies to whom they are 

 let pay only nominal rents, and the quality of the produce is said 

 to be equal to the finest Spanish samples. 



The country through which I rode for these two days must 

 now be very like what Britain was before the Roman invasion. 

 The oak and cork forests, the narrow, rapid streams, the un- 

 dulating hills, the dells, the forest glades, — the very presence, 

 here and there, of blue-tattooed Arabs in their burnouses, all 

 combined to recall the descriptions of ancient Britain. One had 

 presented an exact idea of what a rich hilly country is by nature, 

 and what man can make it. The very district through which 

 we rode was once as well cleared and cultivated as England is 

 now, and if Frenchmen could colonize, such slopes and valleys 

 would soon be dotted with homesteads. 



Soon after re-entering the forest, I had my first and probably 

 my last rencontre with a lion. Observing a line of cliff about 

 half a mile to the right with a pair of White Vultures hovering 

 over it, I dismounted in hope of finding the nest, and told 

 Salah to hold the horses and to follow on as he heard my signal 

 whistle ; for I wished to scan the rocks, which seemed to extend 

 for a mile or two parallel to our track. The ground proved 

 much more difficult than I had anticipated. Before I had pro- 

 ceeded far, I was in a dense thicket of tangled brushwood, 

 through which the trees had forced their way, without giving 

 any idea at a distance of the mass of obstruction below them. 

 Tired, torn, and pricked, I continued to creep as best I could 

 under this matwork, till at length I came upon a little dry 

 watercourse thickly arched over by shrubs, — a sort of tunnel as 

 it were, up which I might creep more easily to the rocks. I 

 took advantage of it, but after proceeding a little way suddenly 

 saw, about ten paces in front of me, a young lion, not taller than 



