SEVENTH DAY. 11. 3 







the wooded valleys of the Wiener Wald and the neighbourhood 

 of Purkersdorf and Hainbach. The glades, woods, streams, 

 and steep slopes were very much the same, only here in the 

 Fruska-Gora the mountain-ridges were much higher and more 

 imposing than they are in the Wiener Wald, 



When we had driven a little way we came to a wire fence, 

 which ran right across the glade and up the slopes on both 

 sides. Here we passed through a gate, and Count Chotek 

 told us that he had made this fence to assist in preventing the 

 Roe and Red Deer from straying into the vineyards and fields, 

 for this was the principal pass towards the peasants' holdings, 

 as the woods here advanced more into the open country 

 than at any other part. The further we went along the 

 bottom of the valley the more silent and lonely the country 

 became, and not the slightest sign of a house or the least 

 trace of attention to the roads or the management of the 

 woods indicated the neighbourhood of human settlements. I 

 have never come across a more uninhabited woodland solitude 

 even in the most remote valleys of our Alps. 



We soon arrived at a charmingly situated little shooting- 

 lodge, with a stag's head over the gate, the well laid-out 

 gardens in front of the house showing that it must often be 

 occupied by the owners of the shooting, while some small huts 

 belonging to the keepers and the woodmen gave a little ad- 

 ditional life to the scene. This is the place where the Count 

 and his guests pass a few days during the rutting-season of 

 the stags, using it as a starting-point for their shooting ex- 

 peditions. It contained only one simply furnished room, with 

 two beds, a kitchen, and some accommodation for servants. 

 The Count proudly directed our attention to a Griffon Vulture 

 which was stuffed and placed in the gentlemen's apartment. 

 This bird is very rare in the Fruska-Gora, and he had killed 

 it with the rifle some years ago when returning from deer- 

 stalking. Lower down the Danube this vulture is common 



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