28 SHORT STALKS 



Returning from that expedition in the evening in the 

 little waggonette we had hired, we had an object-lesson in 

 the obstinacy of Sard horses. Such a pair of jibbers I 

 never saw before. After a series of tremendous struo-oles, 

 during which we progressed about a mile in an hour, we 

 gave it up and walked home. The driver arrived there at 

 midnight leading his horses. The next day he made 

 another attempt, but ultimately he was beaten, and had to 

 walk twelve miles to fetch another j^air. 



After this we returned with renewed zest to our own 

 methods, thanking our stars that we were not dependent 

 upon a mixed rabble of Sards for our sport. It was not all 

 j^lain sailing, however, for the weather again turned abomin- 

 ably rough, and remained so, almost without intermission, 

 for the rest of our stay. One does not expect to find the 

 Arctic regions within one hundred and fifty miles of Africa. 

 Daily we had to face heavy fiills of snow and hail, which con- 

 demned us to a voluntary imprisonment for hours together 

 under some hospitable rock, waiting for such a clearance 

 as would make it possible to use the telescope. But our 

 worst enemy was the wind. So thrashing, hammering, 

 persistent a gale I never tried to stand against. The 

 windows of the ccmtoniera were partly blown in, and the 

 fine powdery snow poured in through the broken panes for 

 several days continuously, while outside nothing was to be 

 seen but whirlwinds of snow and columns of spray one 

 hundred feet high, literally torn up from the surface of the 

 little river. Even wdien the snow ceased to fall, the wind 

 was so high that it caught it up in wreaths, and filled 

 the air with the fine particles like a fog, so that no use 

 could be made of the glass. Nor was this the worst of it ; 



