190 Dr Boue's Geographical and Geological 



Cettigne is situated in a dry valley, and the only torrents are 

 those near Genognussi ; but the waters quickly disappear un- 

 der ground, a fact of which geographers are not aware. On 

 the other hand, to the east of Ipek, the Istok issues as a tor- 

 rent from a subterranean channel in the old limestone ; and the 

 White Drin makes its appearance as a river from under a lime- 

 stone crag at the distance of one and a half miles above Novo 

 Celo, six miles east of Ipek. Geographers, induced probably 

 by the similarity of names, have marked this Drin as having 

 its origin at Rosalia, a village on the Bosnian side of the chain, 

 and on one of the higher branches of the Drina in Bosnia. Be- 

 sides, the position of Rosalia is wrong ; as it is too much to the 

 west, or Ipek too much to the east. The high plateau of Nik- 

 shichi (Niskiki of maps), in Herzegowina, has no lakes, but 

 only caverns or katavotrons, in which the water loses itself, and 

 which may occasionally overflow after long rains. 



Bosnia is an immense plateau inclined from south to north, 

 and presenting to the Albanian plain of Ipek, and the hills of 

 Myrdita, a limestone wall from 6000 to 7000 feet high. It 

 requires four or five hours to ascend to the plateau. To the 

 west, Bosnia is bounded in a similar manner by the snowy 

 chain east of Mostar, and the Kom west of Kolaschin and 

 east of Drobniak. Thus Mostar is another Nice, protected 

 towards the north, and surrounded with gardens of pomegra- 

 nate, olive, and orange trees, rising in terraces one above 

 another, — a fertile oasis in the stony calcareous soil of Herze- 

 gowina. Towards Servia, the plateau of Bosnia also descends 

 very abruptly, especially to the north-east ; but to the south- 

 east it is connected with the Servian hills near Uschitze, and 

 on the banks of the Ibar. 



We may travel for many miles on level ground on the 

 highest and most southerly plateau of Bosnia : occasionally we 

 meet with small valleys or small basins, the sites of former 

 lakes, as the plain north of (Jgrlo. From this, the most ele- 

 vated plateau^ all the ridges diminish in height towards the 

 north, and run S.E.-N.W., so that they form a slightly in- 

 clined plain so far as the Save. The highest ridges run pa- 

 rallel to the Kom and Dormitor, &c., in Herzegowina, but have 

 only half or two-thirds the altitude of these mountains, or of 



