108 
SALT-WATEE SWAMP. 
screaming gulls as by inquisitive peripatetic 
naturalists, who only came, in for a scattered 
mass of fragments too hard and spiky even for 
the maw of cormorant and smU. 
As we descended thp brown and barren stone- 
strewn hill towards a little Sahara of sand, a hare 
limped away before us, and the hot bare rocks were 
enlivened by the cocj[uettish movements of the 
pretty hoopoe; but beyond these and grasshoppers 
there Avere no signs of life. AYe passed through a 
small, close, unsavoury village, and arrived at a 
vast level, sandy plain, quite hard and dry in some 
parts, but showing generally the characters of a 
salt-Avater swamp, Avith glistening A\diite patches of 
encrusting salt, shalloAv lagoons, and taAAuiy spaces 
Avhere the cuiieAvs stalked about like so many 
diminutive ostriches, and Avdiere, by common agi'ce- 
ment, avocets, sandpipers, and godAvits assembled 
for a diligent search for j>alatable Avoims. Across 
this Aveary waste mules and donkeys Avere Avendiiig 
their way in single file along the narroAV paths, and 
here and there a dark blue dot pointed out some 
