18 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



had missed at Berlin cost us three days' 

 delay at Odessa. To sit still in our hotel 

 and be patient, now that we were just on the 

 borderland of our happy hunting grounds, 

 was impossible, 



Odessa has few charms for the sightseer ; 

 Frank hated sightseeing, and I had seen all 

 the sights before, so that there was no hope 

 of dispelling ennui by ' doing the lions.' But 

 half an hour's chat with my old friend 

 Consul- General Stanley put us in a more 

 hopeful mood. To do him justice, our consul 

 is a thorough Englishman, always ready for 

 sport when he can be spared from the duties 

 of a busy consulate ; so that before the morn- 

 ino; was over we were all en route for the 

 snipe marshes of the Dnieper, full of the 

 memories of our last visit to them in 1876, 

 and sanguine of sport on the morrow in 

 spite of the prophecies of too much water 

 and no birds, which stay-at-home Odessa 



