PELICANS AS OBSERVED IN EASTERN EUROPE. 369 



cachinnans, which had been winged, and described these birds as 

 being very mischievous, and doing much damage to the fishing. 



The soil of the islands was entirely composed of shells — 

 broken-up cockle-shells. The only vegetation was a species of 

 samphire, growing like heather, but this only flourished where 

 there were no nests. In this samphire were countless hosts of 

 mosquitoes and poisonous-looking horse-flies, and I fully expected 

 to be fearfully tormented. However, much to my relief, I was 

 not stung once during my five hours' stay on the islet. I met 

 the same flies later in the Dobrudscha, when I was not so lucky. 

 They can fetch blood every time ! 



This expedition of ours, being quite unauthorized, caused 

 great excitement in the minds of the Turkish authorities. It 

 was reported that an Englishman was travelling about the 

 country, and inquiries and official reports were flashing along 

 the telegraph-wires between Scutari and Constantinople. As 

 they could not get hold of me they put into prison the poor 

 Albanian, whose only offence was that he had given us food and 

 shelter for a night. He was accused of " conspiring with 

 foreigners," and some difficulty was experienced in effecting his 

 release. As it happened, I had official permission from Con- 

 stantinople, but had not known I was within the jurisdiction of 

 the Governor-General of Scutari, to whom I had been recom- 

 mended. I called on him later, and found him very courteous 

 and obliging. It will not, however, be very easy in future for 

 anybody to penetrate as far as the locality we visited, for the 

 natives will not unnaturally oppose any visit for fear of getting 

 into trouble again. This is no doubt exactly the effect desired 

 by the Turks, and, after all, perhaps it may serve a good pur- 

 pose, for the Pelicans seem to be receding further and further from 

 civilization. I can only hope that this particular colony may 

 remain undisturbed for many years. 



