14 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



voyage. We sat down on deck, where most of our 

 fellow-passengers were assembled, and waited for 

 our coffee to be announced. 



All at once we heard a shout ; the engines 

 stopped, and the rattle of a cable through its 

 hawse-hole followed, accompanied by profuse 

 Italian language, mostly bad. Going to the side, I 

 saw that the ship had been steered for a channel 

 some forty yards wide, between a long island 

 (Melada) to port and a barren rock to starboard. 

 Through this passage the water ran in a very 

 broken manner, ominously suggestive of shallow 

 water and a strong current. 



Now we are going astern, and slowly, slowly 

 the ship heads to the southward, her screw not five 

 yards from the dry rocks on shore. Nothing but 

 the knowledge of the precipitous nature of the 

 coast of these islands warrants the execution of 

 this otherwise perilous manoeuvre. At last the 

 bow swings clear, the auchor is catted and fished, 

 we pass round the little scoglia, and, finding our 

 proper channel on its southern side, steam cheerily 

 through. In two hours we are at Zara. 



Zara, or, to give it its Slav name, Zadar, has 

 been said to be the least prettily situated of the 

 Dalmatian towns. Without altogether endorsing 

 this opinion, I will say that, if it is well founded, 

 it proves what a high standard of picturesqueness 

 the others maintain. We found the first view of 



