74 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



well-known fact that means of water-transport were 

 almost unknown at that period, so it has been 

 conjectured that these may have been survivors 

 of the cataclysm which rent all the islands away 

 from the mainland. More strange than all, one 

 of the skeletons was found to have a stone knife 

 embedded between the ribs — a silent record of pre- 

 historic crime perhaps unequalled in the world's 

 annals. To what conjectures does it not open the 

 way, this long-forgotten deed of violence ? 



Soon after five we made fast at the quay of 

 the curious old city of Trau. It has been well 

 said that " Trau within and without gives one 

 the impression of a mediaeval Venetian city." 

 Although it was one of the principal Venetian 

 settlements in Dalmatia, it is of course of far 

 greater antiquity, having been a considerable town 

 for centuries before Christ (the Koman Tragu- 

 rium). The harbour fortifications are Venetian, 

 but the round tower, which is equally con- 

 spicuous, is older, having been built in the second 

 half of the fourteenth century as a defence against 

 Venice. Everything else about the place is pure 

 Venetian — the townhall, the loggia, the Cippico 

 Palace, the many churches. Chief among these 

 is the cathedral, without comparison the finest 

 ecclesiastical building in Dalmatia. Everything 

 about it is worth seeing. The entrance door with 

 the colossal circular window above, the marble 



