TRANSACTIONS. 59 



the land upon the Adriatic are obvious to the most care- 

 less observer, and it may be cited as an instance of the 

 rapidity of this process, that the town of Adria, ■which 

 was a seaport 200 years after the time of Christ, is now 

 fifteen miles from the water. 



The most important branches of industry in Lombardy, 

 considered in a commercial point of view, are silk and the 

 products of the dairy. The silk culture presents no very 

 striking points of difference from that of other countries, 

 but the variety of lacteal products, some of which are 

 peculiar to Lombardy, is very great, arid many of the pro- 

 cesses of the Lombard dairies, as well as of those of 

 Switzerland and other European countries, might, very 

 probably, be introduced with advantage into our husbandry. 



Let us now pass over to the Slavo-German and German 

 provinces of the Austrian empire. The olive is still cul- 

 tivated in the neighborhood of Trieste in the province of 

 the Littoral; but as soon as you climb the plateau at the 

 head of the Adriatic, all traces of the southern flora vanish. 

 The plateau in question, called the Harst, is one of the most 

 singular regions in Europe. It is a lime-stone plain em- 

 bracing a considerable part of Carinthia, Caruiola, Istria 

 and other districts in the territory of lllyria north and 

 east of the Adriatic. Its most striking peculiarity is the 

 fact, that it is almost whollv undermined by natural caves, 

 which are so numerous that above a thousand are counted 

 in Carniola alone. The natural drainage of the Harst is 

 generally subterranfean. The surface is thickly sprinkled 

 with conical depressions of various dimensions, but usually 

 from thirty to three hundred feet in diameter, and from 

 ten to thirty or forty feet deep. They are so plentifully 

 strown in some places that the roads arc obliged to pursue 

 a very crooked course, and sometimes to make consider- 

 able circuits, to avoid them. They have been formed by 

 the partial sinking in of the roof of the caverns below, 

 and though there is seldom a visible aperture, but on tho 



