IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 55 



two large steamers to pass each other — it is of 

 great depth. At its inner mouth are the ruins 

 of two small towers, between which the Venetians 

 were wont to stretch chains to exclude hostile 

 galleys. All this part of the two small peninsulas, 

 which form the arms, as it were, of the harbour, 

 have recently been planted with trees — the sea- 

 pine, as they call it here. It will much improve 

 the effect, but, as the tree is a slow-growing one, 

 not for half a century or so. 



Excepting its cathedral, a very fine fifteenth- 

 century building, Sebenico contains little of in- 

 terest. We were mostly concerned to get a 

 month's English papers and letters which we 

 found awaiting us. Although a town of eight 

 thousand inhabitants, Sebenico contains no bank, 

 and it is almost impossible to get English bank- 

 notes changed here. I was offered eleven florins 

 per pound sterling, and, as the exchange of the 

 day was not much below twelve and a half, I need 

 hardly say I declined the offer. On our return we 

 unfortunately had a very high and contrary wind, 

 so that our homeward voyage took us nearly three 

 hours, whereas we had gone in in seventy minutes. 



On the Wednesday (September 5) our hospit- 

 able neighbour — it is useless to expect to maintain 

 his incognito, for throughout Dalmatia Zablace is 

 unmistakably identified with the name of Fontana 

 de Yalsalina — invited us to a, to my mind, far 



