APRIL 93 



the prettiest sights in the country are the groups of 

 merry school-children, well clad, well fed, and particu- 

 larly well mannered. 



Now a final word as to the fishing. That there are 

 trout of enormous dimensions, and that these may be 

 caught by rod and line, we had ocular demonstration. 

 We had the undoubted record of the capture of one 

 weighing 37 Ib. by a gallant British admiral, and 

 while we were at Podgoritza, one was taken scaling 

 20 kilos (40 Ib.). We ate fish up to 12 Ib. in weight, 

 pink in flesh, and excellently flavoured, but we caught 

 none. Our visit was timed at least a month too early, 

 for in mid-April the snow is still melting apace, and 

 the chief river, the Moratza, is hopelessly milky with 

 glacier mud. 



This Moratza, which flows past Podgoritza, is a swift 

 and noble stream about the size of the Tay at Aber- 

 feldy, but very different in the character of its banks. 

 For several miles round Podgoritza extends a level 

 plain, the bed of an ancient lake, of which the gravel- 

 beds have become indurated into breccia rock. Through 

 this rock the river has cut its way, forming a canon 

 with sides from a hundred to two hundred feet high. 

 It is the principal feeder of the great Lake of Skodra, 

 through which is drawn the frontier line between 

 Montenegro and Albania. This lake swarms with a 

 kind of bleak locally called scoranze, differing from our 

 northern bleak in that it is most excellent food and 

 maintains an important fishing industry. Upon these 

 bleak feed trout of the same species as those in British 

 and Irish rivers, and thrive so amazingly upon this diet 



