52 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 
locality on the map, when they began to talk of it as a district 
splendidly adapted for ornithological researches, and to form 
high scientific expectations in connexion with this trip. The 
more they dreamed of these prospects, the smaller were my 
hopes of seeing these gentlemen return laden with an eagle, 
for the sporting proclivities of the true naturalist, however 
great they may be, always give way whenever a question 
of scientific interest arises. 
Breakfast was soon despatched, and we separated with 
hearty wishes for good luck. I got into a boat with Hodek 
and my jager, three “csikeln” followed us, and we started 
on our expedition. 
We began by rowing slowly up-stream for about a quarter 
of an hour, till we got to a high wood chiefly composed of 
willows ; were we put into the bank, and I seated myself in a 
“esikel”’ paddled by the sturdy Ferencz. Hodek and my jiger 
settled themselves in the two others, and, taking the boat 
along with us, we pushed into the wood at a flooded spot only 
afew yards broad. Here a narrow strip of dry ground run- 
ning along the edge of the trees divided the arm of the river 
from the interior of the wood, which was so completely under 
water that we could easily pass between the tall stems—this 
sort of inundated forest, devoid of bushes or undergrowths, 
having a very singular look. A little way further on the high 
trees became scarcer, being replaced by thickets, and the 
difficulties of the already unpleasant navigation were increased 
by the drift-wood which was floating about. However, light 
soon shone through the bushes, and we reached an open sheet 
of water about a thousand yards long by a few hundred 
broad, and bounded on the left by bushes with only a few 
high trees rising among them, and on the right by a very 
singular and lofty forest, while to the front the view was also 
closed by woods. I fancy that in the height of summer, when 
the floods recede, this open is transformed either into one of 
