26 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



called out, " That is the Ob, exactly like the Ob ! " I had got 

 it at last it was only to be likened to the descriptions I had 

 read in books of travel of rivers and primeval forests in other 

 parts of the world, and this was confirmed by the living book 

 of travels called " Brehm." 



Anyone who fancies that the " auen " of Southern Hungary 

 are pretty pleasant places is much mistaken, for a deep 

 solemnity tinged with melancholy pervades the whole 

 scene, and the large unbroken lines of the broad stream and 

 the monotonous dark green woods produce a gloomy impres- 

 sion, such as one feels when a cloudless sky of uniform tone 

 stretches over a still sea or the loftiest regions of a mighty 

 mountain-range ; for where the infinite calm of such a 

 picture is broken by no third colour, one feels oppressed by 

 the vastness of nature and the absence of all enlivening 

 variety. Never during the journey did I feel this so strongly 

 as on this first afternoon, and never again did the tone of the 

 sky so thoroughly harmonize with the character of the country 

 and create such unity and repose. The whole afternoon and 

 evening we lingered on deck, partly to admire the landscape 

 and partly to observe the birds, for there was plenty of life 

 round about us. Herons flew lazily from bank to bank, 

 ducks of various kinds swam about the main stream and 

 were still more numerous in the side channels, while the 

 Black Kite, that most abundant of all the raptorial birds of 

 Southern Hungary, showed itself everywhere above the trees, 

 not to mention Crows and Starlings, so common throughout 

 these districts. 



We noticed hardly any hawks, the few seen being invari- 

 ably the graceful Kestrels; but where the steep friable treeless 

 banks fell down to the stream, Sand-Martins were breeding 

 in great numbers, and I frequently observed Stonechats. 



Somewhat above Duna-Szekcso the " auen " disappear 

 from the right bank, while on the left they cover the whole 



