366 Notes on Sport and Travel iv 



scanty cultivation about the flanks, probably where 

 the limestone rests on the erupted rocks. On the 

 whole a very grand and striking guardian of the 

 mouth of the Tagus. 



I delight in the shoals of porpoises. They rush 

 past the ship, ten abreast, through the green sea 

 with a clear gliding motion which is very beautiful. 

 The whole shoal seem to delight in snapping their 

 prey at the same moment, and I can see their sharp 

 teeth as each opens his deadly jaws. Standing 

 above them, I can distinctly see the blow-hole open 

 when the head is protruded from the water, and 

 closed as it descends with a pleasant puffing sigh. 

 I meet old friends here in the shape of gannets or 

 solan geese, with their strong bills and thick bull- 

 necks. What a range they have from John o' 

 Groat's House to Lisbon ! They ought to be capital 

 ichthyologists. 



After lying off all night we worked into the 

 river and came to anchor off Lisbon about four 

 o'clock. All the way up the scenery is intensely 

 eastern. The pine-trees put one in mind of palms, 

 and the hedges are of gigantic aloe. All the crops 

 are in and the ground is ploughed, so that there is 

 hardly any colouring except the natural one of the 

 soil, which varies through endless tints of yellow, 

 brown, and purple. 



On the south side of the entrance there is a sandy 

 tract on which the royal family of Portugal caught 

 that terrible attack of fever which ravaged it, killing 



