264 BIRD-HUNTING 



Russian war-ship the Potemkin, in the Black Sea, 

 2,000 of whom had taken refuge in Roumania, and 

 had settled down there. 



At midday we left the Sulina arm and proceeded 

 to the north, along what had formerly been the 

 navigable channel before a short cut had been 

 made across a big bend. Up this channel the men 

 towed the boat against stream — our usual mode 

 of procedure when our course was against the 

 heavy Danube current, which runs with amazing 

 force. You hear about the blue Danube, but 

 never see it; the mud-charged waters of the 

 great river are a dark brown in colour, and must 

 carry into the Black Sea an astonishing amount of 

 sediment held in suspension. The navigable arms 

 forming the Delta— the Kilia, Sulina, and St. 

 George's arms — are only kept to a navigable depth 

 by numerous powerful dredges incessantly at work, 

 clanking and groaning and snorting and puffing 

 enough to frighten all the water-fowl for miles. 



Towards evening we arrived at a small fishing- 

 village, and put up at the superintendent's house, 

 the men as usual sleeping in the boat. The 

 mosquitoes in this place were as thick as bees when 

 swarming. Around the houses the people were 

 burning dry reeds to windward, the pungent smoke 

 of which has some effect in lessening the plague, 

 and my first business was to unpack and rig up 



