ROMEOSTIA. 147 



They knew every little swamp, and every bit of 

 ground where a snipe was to be found, and therefore 

 they were most useful acquaintances, and were really 

 capital fellows. I cannot pretend to tell all the places 

 we went to, and the snipe we killed and all the fun 

 we had together, but one place in particular must be 

 mentioned. It was what was called the sulphur 

 springs, about six or seven miles from Rome. It was 

 a most curious piece of flat, mossy, and rushy ground, 

 covered with a spongy kind of substance, almost like 

 soft pumice stone, and which there can be but little 

 doubt had at some former period been cast up by 

 some subterraneous heat or fire. The water standing 

 in these places was about the temperature of new 

 milk, and smelt strongly of sulphur, in fact, they 

 were sulphur springs, and the scent of them was so 

 strong that if the wind set towards you you could 

 smell them quite a quarter of a mile off. After a 

 heavy rain the whole place was a sulphurous swamp, 

 and it was quite a matter of astonishment to me why 

 the snipe should take such a fancy to such an ill- 

 savoured place, for the odour was like the washing 

 out of gun barrels. The marsh around was studded 

 with thorn trees, from a foot to seven or eight feet 

 high, and amongst these, the snipe, when disturbed 



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