DENSE COVERTS. 137 



familiar to me as British insects, while I saw speci- 

 mens of almost every butterfly which occurs with 

 us at home. The most numerous, I think, was the 

 clouded yellow, and its paler variety ' hyale.' 



The day we got our honey was a red-letter day 

 for us, for on that occasion our larder reached its 

 maximum of plenty ; the boat, with stores from 

 Duapse, turning up on the afternoon of the same 

 day. A bear's ham, some pork, black bread, honey, 

 onions, and a bottle of abomination, labelled ' Yieux 

 Rhum, Marseilles,' which I doubt not had never 

 been much nearer France than the Crimea, made 

 my servant's face beam with delight at the sight of 

 such unwonted plenty ; but alas ! from this day 

 our evil times were to commence ; and so bare did 

 our larder at last become that tne very flies that 

 then swarmed gave us up as inhospitable paupers 

 before the end of a fortnight. 



On trying the part of the forest in which I had 

 killed my first bear on Monday, we could find no 

 fresh traces of game, although the place was quite 

 a warren of old boar runs, and full of beaten roads 

 made by the bears. The cause of the game's 

 absence was evidently the presence of the carcass of 

 my first bear, which, mangled by jackals, was 

 already tainting the air far and wide. Some large 

 game I did almost bag, but that was nearly being 

 a very serious matter for one of us. 



As usual, we took parallel lines along the hill- 



