62 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



trated into the virgin forest, where stood the nest of the Eagle- 

 Owl. I now carefully slipped up in my " csikel " to the oppo- 

 site side of the old dead willow, and tried, hy 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 safe 

 hiding-place near its dwelling. 



Quite undecided what to do next, we were waiting round 

 the nest in our " csikeln," when my jager, 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-sterns 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 got a 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-Eagle's nest which I had 



