150 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



and before reaching it one sees the ruins of the 

 old Venetian frontier post on a rock high above it. 

 Old towers dot the marsh, too, in places ; but we 

 had nearly done with the fen country. At Capljina 

 the sunny parts of the houses were festooned with 

 Turkish tobacco, now nearly ready for carrying 

 to the government depots. The Narenta, which 

 runs beside the railway-line all the way to 

 Konjica, now enters a gorge which reminded 

 me greatly of the Cettina valley, but the hills 

 are lower. At its mouth lies Pocitelj, a curious 

 old-world fortified town. Here we saw the first 

 mosque ; and as a further reminder that we were 

 in the land of the Crescent, two or three of those 

 shapeless bundles, which we are assured contain 

 Turkish women, were waiting on the platform of 

 the station, which, by the way, is like that of 

 Metkovic, only connected with the town by a 

 ferry. At Dretelj, as the station is called, we 

 waited a good quarter of an hour, as indeed we 

 did nearly everywhere, though it seemed most 

 unnecessary. As the distance from Metkovic to 

 Mostar is only twenty-six miles, one fails to see 

 why the journey should take two hours. But if 

 we found the line exasperating, what must it be 

 to through passengers, say from Spalatro ? As I 

 have already explained, they are pretty sure to 

 have to spend one night at Metkovic. That they 

 must spend another at Mostar is certain. Twice 



