74 FLORA OF DALMATIA, 
the year. With regard to the soil, which is well known to 
exert a considerable influence on vegetation, it is throughout 
calcareous; consisting of large masses, interspersed with deep 
cavities, where the water lodges. The formation of the loftier 
mountains is primitive grey limestone, in strata, mixed with red 
oxide of iron. The lower districts consist more properly of 
a yellowish white Jura chalk, frequently mingled with horn- 
stone, organic remains, nummulites, shells, and even skeletons 
of fish and crustaceous animals. Remains of plants occur in 
a bluish grey mass of marly chalk, which again passes into 
sandstone. Where the primitive chalk rock prevails, the 
water sinks into the subterranean hollows that it forms; and 
a mass of a crumbling marl, brown clay, and brown coal, ex- 
tends from the Promina, over Much and the Mosor, as far as 
Biocovo. Loam organization appears on the Turkish border 
from Imoschy down to the Narenta; most of the low grounds, 
however, are filled’with a heavy red-coloured iron ochre. The 
only fertile land of Dalmatia, about Dernis, Much, and Sign, 
consists of brown coal formation, decomposed by the action of 
the atmosphere. The direction of the mountain-chains is 
from north to south; that of the few rivers, the Zermayne, 
Kierka, Cettina, and Narenta, from east to west, that is, 
naturally, towards the sea. The principal ridge of mountains 
separates itself on the Turkish border from the Vellebit, and 
running from the coast along the Morlacca Canal, attains an 
elevation of 4000 to 5000 feet, forming at the Dinara a sum- 
mit 5660 feet high, from which the Bosnian Alps derive their 
name. This ridge, which continues on the left bank of the 
Cettina, towards the Narenta, becomes more and more level; 
and finally disperses into several little branches. From the 
Dinara to the highest point in Dalmatia, another mountain 
chain diverges, first rising into a summit, called the Promina, 
3600 feet, and then proceeding to the Swylaja mountains 
whose most elevated point is 4743 feet. This mountain 
branch passes through the low ridge at Much, thence southerly, 
and rises considerably to the mouth of the Cettina, where it 
takes the name of the Mosor Mountain, and its highest summit 
