186 Dr Bou^s Geographical and Geological 



sionally capped with snow during summer. These ridges are 

 immense masses of crystalline slates, which, in the Tschar, be- 

 come talcose or argillaceous, and contain whole hills of compact 

 or semi -granular limestone. As an example T may mention 

 the high and massive Taleshdagh, the Galitza of maps, nearly 

 6000 feet in height, at the eastern entrance of the black Drin. 

 The hills behind Prisrend and its old Servian castle are also 

 calcareous, and abound in fine springs. The roads through the 

 Tschar from Frisrend to Kalkandel, and from Prisrend to 

 Kacsanik, are very interesting from the beautiful views which 

 they command — valleys with lofty crags, ruins of castles and 

 monasteries, and villages scattered among high declivities. 



To the west of these ridges, and rising to an average height 

 of 6000 or 7000 feet, are the primary mountains of Elbessan, 

 through which passes the only military road from Romelia or 

 Monastir to Scutari. It is carried through Ochri, where the 

 vineyards indicate that the elevation of the lake of Ochrida is 

 under 2000 feet ; it may, however, be estimated at 1500 or 

 1600 feet. More to the south we meet with the northern ex- 

 tremities of the primary Pindus with parallel limestone ridges 

 like those of the Tschar. 



To the north of these chains, all of which, with the exception 

 of the Tschar, run from north-west to south-east, there have 

 been immense eruptions of Diorite, compact Euphotide and 

 Serpentine, and among these we find all the compact, lamellar, 

 sienitic, decomposed, and earthy varieties of the ophite of the 

 Pyrenees. Diallage-rocJc occurs rarely, but forms some mag- 

 nificent masses and small hills in this deposit around the tor- 

 rent of Rape, thirty miles east of Scutari. These igneous 

 rocks contain considerable masses of clay-slate, &c., through 

 which they have been upheaved, and which they have altered 

 and indurated in various ways. Whole rocks and mountains 

 are composed of red and greenish jaspers, and these pass into 

 the slate from which they have been formed, as in Italy, by 

 igneous agency. This singularly intersected and barren dis- 

 trict includes all the mountains between the confluence of the 

 black and white Drins, and the place where they issue from the 

 calcareous rent six miles from Scutari, comprehending a tract 

 sixty-six miles from west to east, anil nearly fifteen miles from 



