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Vol. I.
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459
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THE LYNX.-BEAR.—WOLF, &c.

459

have seen, with an emotion that brought tears into myeyes, the good old Abate Lolli sitting at his door of abeautiful summer Sunday evening playing on his violin,while the young, aye, and old folks, too, of his villagedanced to his merry music. But I must curtail my storyand pass on. Before, however, I take leave of Fucino andCelano, I will inform my readers what sort of sport theymay meet with in those beautiful districts of the Appennines,and in the waters of that lake and neighbouring rivers.Of game, bears, wolves, lynxes, hares, and deer abound.Partridges, quails, and snipes are exceeding plenty.The surface of the lake is covered with myriads of wildducks, teal, coote, geese, and widgeons. Pike, carp, tench,and enormous eels swarm in the lake; and the rivers Liriand Garigliano abound with trout. Isola and Sora are thebest places for trout fishing. I saw two lynxes whilst I wasthere. One day meeting an old woodcutter, on a woodymountain, I began talking to him about wolves and bears,and I particularly asked him if he knew where I could meetwith a lynx. He said that we just then were in the mostlikely place possible, and pointed out several peaks ofrock covered with myrtle, between which he said thelynx would crouch and catch the birds as they passedacross the hollow from one set of bushes to the other. Thisaccount of bird catching much struck me, but I found uponinquiry that the old man was right, as birds are oftencaught upon the wing by the lynx in the way described.Continuing my colloquy with the woodcutter, or rathercarbonaro, he pointed to an old hollow tree with a largehole at the bottom of it, and said, “'Now this is just sucha tree as a lynx would like for his lodging,” and walking upto it he looked up the hole, then gave it a heavy blow withthe back of his axe. The sound reverberated in the forest,but instantly another sound like some one tumbling down