TENTH DAY. 167 



southern slope, along a wretched road, and halted near a spur 

 of the mountain which jutted out a good way towards the 

 valley of the Save. This was a singularly beautiful point, 

 for to the left we beheld extensive clearings, surrounded on 

 all sides by forests, and to the right, below the hills, lay 

 wooded valleys, terminating in fields and meadows, so that 

 we were quite close to the most southerly slopes of this steep 

 mountain-range. 



It took me another quarter of an hour to walk through a 

 thin oak wood before I got to a pulpit-like projection of the 

 mountain, with almost perpendicular sides. On the very top 

 of this stood a huge and extremely old oak, incredibly broad, 

 but very low, a tree of that variety so common in Northern 

 Hungary which always grows laterally instead of vertically, 

 and whose trunks get thicker and thicker, but never attain 

 any height. 



While still a long way off I could see on its topmost 

 branches a great grey-brown nest, with a Cinereous Vulture 

 standing in it ; and at our approach the bird flew slowly off, 

 being followed by its mate from the interior of the nest. I 

 was now lost in admiration of the marvellous knowledge of 

 birds displayed by one of these keepers, who, on seeing the 

 vultures, said to me that these were the little hawks which 

 he had always seen here ; for, as well as I could understand 

 him, by the help of Bohemian, the Cinereous Vulture was, in 

 his estimation, a smaller and less important bird than the 

 Imperial Eagle. 



Concealing myself as well as I could close to the stem of the 

 nesting-tree, I waited to see what would happen, the forester 

 and the local keepers meanwhile going back some distance to 

 hide themselves : I had now leisure to take an accurate survey of 

 my surroundings, and saw through the tree-tops a pretty good 

 view of the luxuriantly green valley of the Save, through 

 which the mighty river wound in sharp curves, and of the 



