180 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



up in his cart to guide us back to the right road, and we 

 now went on, over stock and stone, the cart following as 

 well as it could, and in half an hour reached the decoy-hut in 

 the well-known valley. There we determined to lie in wait, 

 as we had still some time to spare ; and on getting within a 

 few yards of our amhush, we saw, wheeling round at a great 

 height, a flock of ten or twelve vultures and several eagles, 

 who had doubtless detected the dead horse, and were looking 

 about to see whether there was any appearance of danger, 

 while two other large birds of prey were cruising over a 

 clearing nearer the ground. An hour passed quickly by, and 

 though we distinctly heard the hoarse cries of the birds, and 

 saw them circling high overhead, still none of them would 

 come down to the exposed bait. 



We therefore left the place, went back to the carts, and 

 drove towards the outlying hills, past the shooting-lodge, 

 to which we bade a last sad farewell ; for the few days 

 that we had spent among these charming woods and moun- 

 tains had made us both very fond of them, and it was 

 with feelings of great regret that we looked back at the 

 summits of the Fruska-Gora when we had got outside the 

 woods. Such hunting-grounds as these Slavonian mountains 

 are now indeed but rarely to be met with in our realms, and 

 they offer to the sportsman, who prefers hard work and wild 

 interesting game to easy civilized shooting, everything that 

 he can desire. 



The day had now become quite fine, the heat grew more 

 and more unbearable, the insects kept buzzing about, and the 

 air was so sultry and oppressive that we had hopes that there 

 would soon be a storm to clear and cool it. 



The well-known way was quickly traversed, the village of 

 Cerevic rapidly passed, and we reached the steamer, where 

 we found the gentlemen waiting on deck to tell us what they 

 had done yesterday. Brehm had just come back from a 



