72 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



spot, and all day long the hills echoed to the 

 pop-pop of the natives' long-barrelled guns. I 

 went out once or twice, but only found a few 

 birds. The local sportsmen — and there are a great 

 many too many of them — beat every inch of 

 the ground like well-trained dogs ; and this is 

 decidedly hard work, as the hills are rough and 

 rocky. For this reason my short-legged dogs 

 were not much use. Besides, they had had a very 

 dry summer here, and consequently there was 

 little or no scent. Here, as elsewhere, the land, 

 though mostly out of cultivation other than a 

 few scattered olive-trees, is divided by high stone 

 dikes, and most of these consist of only one row 

 of stones, which makes it difficult to get over 

 without toppling half a dozen stones after one, 

 and both I and the dogs suffered from injuries so 

 caused. 



As had already happened at Morter, E 



killed a scorpion close to the tent here. They 

 seem common in Dalmatia, but nobody troubles 

 about them. I saw some snakes about, as I had 

 also done at Pasman, but they were all common 

 green ones. The great nuisance were the sand- 

 flies. These look just like a common house-fly, 

 but bite very hard, generally selecting one's 

 ankle. Fortunately the bite has not any after- 

 effect, as, for instance, a mosquito's has. 



The camp was a pleasant one, and it was with 



