THIRD DAY. 35 
Apatin, and is the great artery round which is grouped the 
network of the innumerable smaller channels of the great 
Bellye and Draueck “ auen.” 
We now began a most beautiful passage, the air on the 
water being pleasantly cool, for a gentle breeze counteracted 
the heat of the morning sun, and as we swung down the quick 
stream the most charming pictures of silent woodland solitude 
unfolded themselves before us. 
First we passed through low willow copses, where the dense 
foliage trailed in the water, and where it was almost impos- 
sible to see into the bushes. We could hear the enlivening 
notes, uttered by all sorts of birds, while, frightened by the 
noise of the oars, Cuckoos, Orioles, Turtle-Doves, and various 
other children of the woods fluttered up out of the thickets, 
into which they again immediately vanished. 
After a time the scene changed, and to our right appeared 
tall woods, here and there diversified by little meadows and 
low copses, while old oaks and black poplars pushed their 
gnarled branches out of the immense sea of rustling silver 
poplars, and wild fruit-trees showed their blossom-laden 
crowns. 
At one spot we even saw a road, if one might so call it, 
which ran a little way along the bank. There must have 
been a market going on in one of the villages outside the 
woods, for a string of carts full of gaily-dressed men and 
women were struggling along this miry track. 
From an ornithological point of view this passage offered 
but little of interest, though numbers of the birds already noted 
showed themselves, and here,as everywhere else on the Danube, 
the Grey Herons played an important part, for various repre- 
sentatives of this species were standing, stiff and patient, 
watching for fish in the shallows by the banks, while Common 
Mallards flapped up quacking in front of us. 
After we had been rather more than half an hour on the 
D2 
