IN THE HERZEGOVINA 63 



wheels have, nevertheless, what we consider 

 a modern hiiprovement, the so-called tangent 

 spokes, and these, no doubt, they have had 

 for centuries. The felloes are still more 

 characteristic, and consist of four naturally- 

 curved pieces of wood. The history of these 

 is peculiar. On the steepest slopes of the 

 Velez Ranee, which frinoes the one side of 

 this great plain, and which is covered with 

 beechwood to about four thousand feet eleva- 

 tion, the snow bends down the young trees 

 just above the ground every year. When 

 summer comes the struiru'le for lioht and air 

 in these neglected woods causes the sapling 

 to shoot rapidly straight upwards. It thus 

 takes the shape of a J, and when it is about 

 twenty years old the native cuts out the 

 circular segment and carries it off with a 

 pack-horse, with perhaps a couple of dozen 



