The Zoologist — June, 1873. 3555 



October 29. The route from Bastia to Ajaccio, traversing the 

 island in a S.S.W. direction for ninety-four railes, also deserves 

 mention. We started at 11 p.m. on the evening of October 28th 

 in a berlin ; the night was brilliant starlight, and occasional glow- 

 worms shone along the bank during the first part of the way. Our 

 progress on this journey was but slow, as the horses were poor, 

 and frequently changed. Near Vescovato, the road, which had 

 hitherto kept a mile or more distant from the sea, strikes inland, 

 and shortly after skirts the Golo for a considerable distance, first 

 along the right bank, then on the left of the stream, which was 

 heard, and occasionally seen by starlight, foaming in its rocky bed. 

 Day broke as we entered Corte, in which town we made a halt of 

 several minutes, with the bronze statue of Pascal Paolx shining 

 indistinctly in the " Place " by twilight, and on resuming our 

 journey we crossed, immediately after, the Taviguano, and then the 

 Restouica, a tributary of the former. The confluence of these two 

 streams takes place directly below the town : the Tavignano is cele- 

 brated because at its embouchure occurred almost the first naval 

 engagement on record, — that of Alalea (the modern Aleria), 

 between the Phocaeans and Carthaginians, 448 B.C., — and the 

 Restonica from the fact that the ascent to Monte Rotondo, the 

 second highest mountain in the island, is commenced by follow- 

 ing up its gorge, and because on account of its cleansing qualities 

 the locks and barrels of the Corsican muskets in old warfare were 

 dipped in its stream. Chestnut groves were then passed, bright 

 with the rising sun, and strewing the ground with abundance of 

 dropped fruit. We next crossed the torrent of the Vecchio, 

 another tributary of the Tavignano, and ascending to another vil- 

 lage, S. Pierre Vecchio, entered directly a new valley, where the 

 road winding round its sides commanded a fine view of the plain 

 beneath, surmounted by steep stony slopes. On reaching our next 

 halting-place, Vivario, we found this Splugen of Corsica nestled 

 amid the hills, and well-known for the practice of the vendetta, to 

 be a dirty town of white houses, but containing a drinking-foun- 

 tain in the centre, and really a handsome one, ornamented by a 

 figure of Diana armed for the chase, a statue very appropriate to the 

 locality. Then leaving this spot, we commenced ascending the 

 pass, and wound up, chestnuts and aromatic underwood gradually 

 surmounted, till nothing was left but the stiff straight trunks of the 

 Corsican pine in the forest of Vizzavona, overhanging alike the 



