Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book:m PIGS IN ALBANIA 1878 rilHEY were lovely mornings, those on which we steamed -L up the Butrinto River bound for the favourite haunts of the Albanian wild boar, coverts and marshes said by our Corfu beaters to be "more better" than any we had yet visited. We made but slow progress against the strong stream which rushed swiftly down the narrow river, the outlet of the laike above, and the launch had a hard task to tow the yacht's boat deeply laden with as many beaters and dogs as could be got into it. Following the zigzag course of the river as it ran through the low marshy country, the unwonted noise of our hard-working engine disturbed many a duck and water-fowl in their reedy retreat, and caused them to seek safety in flight or in the further recesses of some weed- covered swamp. Now we heard the "cheep," "cheep" of a snipe, then a bunch of ducks flew quacking over our heads; we disturbed coots and cormorants at breakfast, and lovely kingfishers anxiously watching for theirs from some branch overhanging the river. A gigantic pelican tried to race us on the water, but had soon to take to his wings and seek refuge on the lake beyond. We passed a well-preserved old Venetian fort, which in the great days of the great Republic had safeguarded the entrance to the river, then the picturesque ruins of another perched upon a solitary grey rock, commanding at that time the approach to the lake. Beyond this inland sea, the home of every variety of water-fowl which found shelter and food within its reedy shores, lay the great chain of the Albanian mountains, its snow-covered peaks rising farinto- the deep blue sky, dazzling white as the sun shone on them. Below, the hills were clothed with forest, except where here and there a white village clung to the precipitous side, built