SPORT AND TRAVEL 75 



spoken, filling the whole valley (some three or four 

 miles in width) to the foot of the Zuut Dagh, whose 

 precipitous limestone cliffs and snow-sprinkled peaks 

 were sharply reflected in its clear but briny waters. 

 Beyond the Zuut Dagh, and on either side of it, and, 

 indeed, wherever one could obtain a view uninter- 

 rupted by the wooded sides of the Maimun Dagh, lay 

 range beyond range of snow-covered mountains, till in 

 the far distance one's field of vision was bounded by 

 the dead white masses of winter snow, which cover to 

 an unknown depth the great domes and peaks of the 

 White Mountains beyond the Turkish town of El 

 Maly. Presently I noticed some woodcutters with 

 several pack donkeys ascending the hillside far below, 

 and when at length they reached a point some five 

 hundred feet beneath me, I saw an eagle, disturbed by 

 their approach, rise from a cluster of tall pine-trees, 

 which, after circling round for a short time, I marked 

 down on to an enormous nest the accumulation of 

 many years, probably built on the decayed top of a 

 large fir-tree. In a short time the eagle again flew up, 

 and then, looking almost vertically down into the nest 

 with the glasses, I distinctly saw something white, 

 which I knew were eggs, or at least one egg, and this 

 I determined to secure for my collection before leaving 

 the Maimun Dagh. 



But all this time we had heard no sound which 

 might portend the advent of beaters, and I was just 

 about to propose to Mustapha that we should make a 



