THE ISLANDS OF SARDINIA AND CORSICA. 33 



the railway line to Bastia, the workmen suffered 

 severely until the planting a grove of Eucalyptus 

 globulus counteracted the miasmic exhalations. Cor- 

 sica is a land of strong wines and strong waters. The 

 wines from the interior are specially potent, while the 

 waters of Orezza should, in some cases, be taken only 

 by medical advice. Living, except in certain cases, 

 is most inexpensive a dinner at Yivario for example, 

 near Corte, consisting of five courses and ,a bottle of 

 wine, cost me less than eighteenpence. 



Poor as the Mediterranean is in its yield of fish, 

 good catches are made round Corsica, many of the 

 inhabitants being fishermen by trade. Most of the 

 larger fish are taken by long lines at night, and only 

 in certain places. A line that I put out in the bay 

 of Ajaccio one night, with fifty hooks carefully baited 

 with pieces of octopus, when visited early the follow- 

 ing morning, was found to have taken nothing but a 

 small conger. 



A day may pleasantly be passed catching the 

 numerous elegantly and variously coloured fish with 

 which the rocks and shallows abound. One morning 

 in December I rowed across the bay. A wicker 

 basket filled with shrimps was sheltered under a seat 

 from the somewhat too powerful rays of the sun. On 

 reaching a long ridge of submerged rock we dropped 

 a heavy stone secured by three fathoms of rope. 

 Every crevice of rock or morsel of gorgeously-coloured 

 weed was visible through the clear water. Two long 

 cane rods, with each three yards of line, a yard of gut, 



D 



