TENTH DAY. 161 
been perfectly useless, for before I could have put up my gun 
it would have vanished among the thickets, so there was 
nothing for it but to wait quietly. A trying quarter of an 
hour went by, and I was shaking with excitement to such a 
degree that I could stand it no longer; the heat, too, was very 
oppressive, and the mosquitoes were torturing me. So, cocking 
my gun, I ran in as near as I could, thinking that the eagle 
might possibly be frightened by my sudden movement, and 
might sit long enough to allow of my shooting it. I suc- 
ceeded in getting close up to the tree; but as the frightened 
bird dashed off I could neither see it properly nor raise my 
gun on account of the thick bushes, and when I at length 
tried to fire, the hammer caught in a branch and one barrel 
went off before I could aim. 
There was now nothing more to hope for at this nest, so I 
returned to the cart much dejected, after telling some wood- 
cutters and the herdsmen, who were going about with their 
large flocks, to make a still closer search for the wounded 
eagle. All their efforts, however, were unhappily unsuc- 
cessful. 
There now began an hour of trouble and torture, for the 
road was so vile and so steep that the cart often stood at such 
an angle that it threatened to topple over, and we had finally 
to get out of it and follow a long way on foot ; but luckily 
it was shady in the woods, so the sun could not torment us 
with its full power. 
A slight refreshing shower also passed quickly over us, and 
then the sky gradually cleared until the deep blue above was 
perfectly cloudless. 
We were driving through a splendid country, where the 
hills were higher than in the neighbourhood of Cerevié, and 
we went up and down along the most wonderful woodland 
valleys, and often through the most magnificent beech and 
oak woods. At last we reached the ridge of the mountain, 
M 
