318 TRAVEL, ADVEXTURE, AND SPORT. 



there are but few places where vessels, even of small 

 dimensions, dare to approach them, or indeed where 

 it is possible to effect a landing. A long experience 

 of the coast, and of the adjacent labyrinth of islands 

 which block up the gulf of Carnero, is necessary in 

 order to accomplish in safety the navigation of the 

 shallow rocky sea ; and even when the mariner suc- 

 ceeds in setting foot on land, he not unfrequently 

 finds his progress into the interior barred by preci- 

 pices steep as Avails, roaring torrents, and yawning 

 ravines. 



It was on a mild evening of early spring, and a 

 few day after the incidents recorded in the preceding 

 chapter, that a group of wild-looking figures was 

 assembled on the Dalmatian shore, opposite the 

 island of Veglia. The sun was setting, and the 

 beach was so overshadowed by the beetling summits 

 of the high chalky cliffs, that it would have been 

 difficult to discover much of the appearance of the 

 persons in question, but for an occasional streak of 

 light that shot out of a narrow ravine opening among 

 the rocks in rear of the party, and lit up some dark- 

 bearded visage, or flashed on the bright barrel of a 

 long musket. High above the ravine, and standing 

 out against the red stormy-looking sky behind it, the 

 outline of a fortress was visible, and in the hollow 

 beneath might be distinguished the small, closely- 

 built mass of houses known as the town of Segna. 



This castle, which, by natural even more than arti- 



