AN entomologist's VISIT TO DALMATIA IN 1873. 169 



now doing duty as government offices. We were not long 

 before we were ushered into the magistrate's room, our 

 captors remaining outside. The magistrate, a benevolent- 

 looking old gentleman, received us more as guests than our 

 friends outside, if they w^ere looking in, might have antici- 

 pated, and, after seating us comfortably on his sofa, he 

 entered into a rather long apologetic explanation of the 

 conduct of the gensdarmes, &c., and ended by restoring us 

 to liberty and our book, accompanied with an offer to obtain 

 the requisite permission from the governor. We afterwards 

 heard that it was supposed we might be Prussian spies ; 

 some were said to be in the country. 



The place that most interested me was Cattaro. Its lake- 

 like harbour, with deep narrow inlets, is surrounded by grand 

 stem mountains, in many places with just room enough be- 

 tween them and the water for little villages nestling at their 

 feet, and so overhung that one of them, I was told, never 

 saw the sun for more than six months in the year. Cattaro 

 itself is a mere village, with very narrow streets, too narrow 

 indeed for any w^heeled vehicle, even if there were any, but 

 with a noble esplanade just outside the walls and abutting 

 on the sea, and with pleasant walks round the shores of the 

 deep inlet at the end of which the town is j^laced. A castle, 

 built on a very steep rock, dominates over the neighbouring 

 land and water, except at the hack, where a precipitous 

 mountain rises high above castle and town. A little to the 

 left, where it is less elevated and not so vertical, a zig-zag 

 road of sixty-two slopes has been formed ; a very rough 

 road indeed it is, only practicable for mules or possibly horses, 

 though we saw neither. This is the road to Cettinje, the capital 

 of Montenegro, distant from Cattaro about six hours. After 

 a very fatiguing walk, we once got to the summit of the 

 pass only to find ourselves surrounded by rocky heights. 



