Lord Lilfonrs Cruise in the Mediterranean. 13 



formed me that bears still exist in some parts of the Abruzzi, 

 wolves are common in the mountains, foxes swarm. I could 

 obtain no positive information about the lynx. Wild cats and 

 both species of marten are tolerably (or I should, as a game- 

 preserver, perhaps say intolerably) common, otters and badgers 

 less so, wild boars very abundant. The porcupine is gradually 

 becoming scarce ; hares and rabbits exist in the preserved 

 districts. Of the genus Cervus, Cavaliere Mattino seemed 

 to consider that C. capreolus and C. elaphus are indigenous, 

 though the latter is very rare except in the royal preserves, 

 whilst C. dama is, he thinks, decidedly an imported species. 

 Of winged game, strictly speaking. Pheasants having been in- 

 troduced, Caccabis sawatilis, Perdix cinerea, and Coturnix com- 

 munis are the only representatives ; but the numbers of win- 

 ter fowl. Woodcocks, Snipes, and especially Ducks, of many 

 species, are occasionally almost incredible, particularly during 

 this last season, which was exceptionally severe throughout 

 Southern Europe. The King, a few days before our arrival, 

 had killed 180 Ducks to his own gun at Licola; but His 

 ]\Iajesty is a sportsman in the true sense of the word, and 

 fears danger, difficulty, and fatigue as little with the fowling- 

 piece or rifle as with the sword or the more troublesome wea- 

 pons of State policy. He is devoted to shooting of all kinds, 

 but prefers the wilder forms of sport ; and whilst the moun- 

 tains and valleys of Northern Italy ring with his praises as a 

 good fellow and first-class hunter of Ibex and Chamois, even 

 in the languid south, where his fearless and manly qualities 

 are less appreciated, he is universally allowed to be " famoso 

 cacciatore." 



We at last left the beautiful Bay of Naples for Messina on 

 the morning of March 7th, and, with light airs of wind, 

 got some miles south of Stromboli by midday of the 9th, 

 when a furious wind met us, blowing directly out of the 

 Straits ; and as the current was also running some eight or 

 ten knots in the same direction, we ran under the lee of the 

 Sicilian land, and brought up in a little sandy bay some five 

 or six miles west of the Faro for the night, and worked into 

 the harbour of Messina by 9 a.m. on the following morning. 



