62 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 
trated into the virgin forest, where stood the nest of the Hagle- 
Owl. I now carefully slipped up in my “ esikel” to the oppo- 
site side of the old dead willow, and tried, by getting into a 
more favourable position, to secure a better result than that of 
some hours ago. 
Again Hodek went to the trunk of the tree, but all his 
attempts to drive out the owl were fruitless ; the bird had 
been too hard hit, and was probably lying dead in some sate 
hiding-place near its dwelling. 
Quite undecided what to do next, we were waiting round 
the nest in our “ csikeln,’? when my jiiger, who had been 
called up, recommended a search through the thickets for the 
wounded owl; so we at once separated, to range through 
the wood in various directions. 
This was in itself a difficult enough plan to carry out, but 
the numerous islands, already described, often made it quite 
impossible to get forward, and we were in constant dread of 
losing our bearings and going entirely astray. 
However, in a roundabout fashion we went through a great 
deal of this wild intricate wood, often getting altogether stuck 
among the boughs of the thick bushes, and between the 
floating tree-stems or the narrow alleys of the old willows, 
and only by perpetual labour with the paddles, and often with 
the hands, could we work our crafts slowly forward. It was 
troublesome and bootless toil, for we neither gota glimpse 
of the wounded owl nor of the male on which Hodek had set 
much store ; but we were nevertheless repaid by a splendid 
insight into this, the very densest part of the virgin forest. 
On our way back to the nest I observed a good many 
water-fowl, for the ducks which breed here, in great numbers, 
often flapped up noisily, while some couples of the first wild 
geese we had seen during this trip rose in alarm a long 
way off. 
I now resolved to inspect the Sea-Hagle’s nest which I had 
