THE ISLANDS OF SARDINIA AND CORSICA. 27 



down to Cagliari by railway, dozens of their broken 

 towers are seen from the train. A herd of goats may 

 be browsing in the broad shadow of one of them. 

 Lounging against the low dilapidated entrance of 

 another may be seen two or three Sard shepherds, 

 bronzed like the stones of the nuraghe itself, under its 

 cloak of orange lichens, with their guns on their shoul- 

 ders, and their wiry little horses cropping the thistles 

 hard by. Or it may be a festa morning, and the nuraghe 

 on the skirts of the village (with a broad panorama 

 visible from it) are trysting-places for the lads in their 

 best goat's-hair jackets, or for the lasses in all their in- 

 herited bravery of gold chains and bodices of brocaded 

 satin. 



The main salt lake fisheries of Sardinia are those of 

 Oristano and of Cagliari, though round the island are 

 a few smaller ones of the same description. 



Eound the Gulf of Oristano are four large lakes, all 

 of which I visited ; but, as the fisheries are all con- 

 ducted on the same principle, a description of one, 

 Cabras, will suffice. 



The town of Cabras was reached early one morning 

 in a broken-down conveyance the best to be obtained 

 with an order from Cav. Egisio Carta to his head 

 fisherman, Luigi Lioniglia; the distance from Oris- 

 tano being about five miles. A boat and men were 

 procured, with a Sard called Giovanni Loi, who, after 

 a great deal of trouble and exertion, would take no 

 further payment than a cigar. These lakes swarm 

 with wild fowl of all sorts, especially coots, and a few 



