564 



DALMATIA. 



Dalmatia.^ must be accommpdated to their strength, the ground is 

 ^^^"""^ very superficially wrought. There are sheep to furnish 

 the inhabitants with wool; but its quality is not good. 

 The best is found at Bossiglina, in the district of Trau. 

 Dalmatia produces maize, wheat, pulse, grapes, olives, 

 figs, almonds, and various other kinds of fruit. There 

 are no potatoes. Two sorts of manna also might be 

 procured, one from the ash tree by incision, and the 

 other from a species of grass ; but the inhabitants know 

 not bow to, appreciate such sources of subsistence and 

 wealth. The shell fish found here are remarkable nei- 

 ther for variety nor beauty. Most of the mills in Dal- 

 matia have their wheels placed horizontally, and their 

 spokes terminating in a kind of spoon. At Za- 

 ra, they manufacture the liquor called marasquin, so 

 much celebrated in most of the cities of Europe. It 

 is made of marasques, a species of cherry. The stone 

 of the fruit gives the liquor its peculiar flavour. In 

 the county of Trau, the vine and olive tree are culti- 

 vated to a great extent, and in great perfection ; so 

 that from that small district alone, there are produ- 

 ced annually 13,000 barrels of excellent oil, and 50,000 

 hogsheads of remarkably good wine. It furnishes also 

 .300,000 lb. of dried figs, a great quantity of almonds, 

 400,000 lb. of cheese, and wool in proportion. The in- 

 habitants pf Morter make a kind of coarse cloth from 

 the threads of the broom, which they are very indus- 

 trious in gathering. This cloth, however, is too coarse 

 for apparel, and is only employed for making sacks, 

 and packing up merchandise. In all the islands, fish- 

 ing is a general avocation. The fish is salted and sokk 

 which brings to those who are engaged in the employ- 

 ment a very considerable revenue. The fishing, how- 

 ever, is neither applied to with that eagerness, nor car- 

 ried on with that judgment, which are necessary to suc- 

 cess. It was once in a flourishing state, but has lat- 

 terly declined very much. In the lakes and rivers 

 there is abundance of salmon, trout, eels, &c. The sea 

 fish are mackarel, pilchards, mullets, congers, gold-fish, 

 tunnies, &c. There are also dolphins and porpoises. 

 Rivert. The principal rivers of Dalmatia, are the Cettina, the 



Cettina. Kerka, and the Narenta. The Cettina, which is the 

 Titurus ef the ancients, takes its rise at the village of 

 Zarebiza. In the opinion of M. Busching, the Abbe 

 Fortis, and others, the four springs which constitute its 

 sources, are ramifications of a subterraneous river. Of 

 this, there are several presumptive proofs ; the most 

 important of which is, that in one of thp springs, which 

 is remarkably deep, excellent trout of a considerable 

 size are caught. These, it is alleged, could only get 

 there on the supposition that is alluded to. It is a cu- 

 rious fact, that, according to the observation of the 

 country people, the sources of the Cettina rise and fall in 

 regular proportion to the rise and fall of the Lake Bus- 

 coblato, which is situated at a distance of twenty miles, 

 and separatedby veryhighmountains. This circumstance 

 has led them to conclude, that there is a direct commu- 

 nication between the two. The course of the Cettina 

 is wild and romantic. It seldom runs through a plain 

 of any length, but for leagues together dashes from rock 

 to rock between perpendicular mountains, where it 

 seems to have cut a passage for itself from the very sur- 

 face to the very bowels of the earth. Near the fort of 

 Duaro, it forms a very grand cascade. Its breadth is 

 about seventy feet, and it falls vertically from an eleva- 

 tion of a hundred and fifty, amidst vast rocks irregular- 

 ly piled upon one another, unrelieved by one vestige of 

 vegetation, and inhabited only by screaming vultures 

 flf an enormous size. Having escaped from this hor- 



K;vir=. 



Kerk?, 



rid cataract, it pursues its way for about a quarter of a Dalm atia.. 

 league, when it arrives at a precipice twenty feet in 

 height, and forms another cascade. Here, however, 

 tjie scene changes, — verdure and trees and flowers ap- 

 pear in all their beauty, the mountains decline into wood- 

 ed hills, and these again into plains and meadows, through 

 which the Cettina flows slowly andmajestically,tillit falls 

 into the sea not far from the dismantled fortress ofVissach. 

 The Kerka was called Tatius by the ancients, and for- 

 merly separated Liburnia from Dalmatia. It originates 

 in a grotto at the foot of the mountain Topoli — runs in 

 a south-west direction — traverses the lake of Scardona, 

 which is distant from its source about thirty miles — 

 and, issuing from thence, proceeds a few miles farther 

 on, to form a lake about two leagues in length, and 

 empties itself into the sea through the narrow strait of 

 St Antonio. On this river there are several very fine 

 cascades. The most celebrated are those at Rochislap 

 and Scardona. At Rochislap the river is of consider- 

 able width. A bridge, after the Turkish fashion, has 

 been thrown over it, consisting of no fewer than sixty 

 arches. And this, together with some mills, several 

 cottages, and islands covered with trees, render the 

 scene beautiful, independently of the fall of water, 

 which itself is not very great, being only five-and- 

 twenty or thirty feet, but is rendered beautiful by its 

 being divided into twenty separate rivulets, some of 

 which tumble rudely over the rocky precipices, while 

 others pour gently through chasms, which have been 

 gradually formed and polished by the friction of the 

 currents. The cataract at Scardona is far more mag- 

 nificent. It is not quite so large, but fully as grand 

 and striking, as the falls of Niagara. M. Cassas gives 

 a fine description of it : " At the foot," says he, " of 

 the first three shelves, or steps, where the river divides, 

 the united summits of a few trees, whose trunks are 

 concealed by a variety of objects in the fore ground, 

 intersect with a verdant line the whole width of the 

 cascade ; but as the water approaches it becomes still 

 wider. A semicircular terrace, pi-olonging its colossal 

 propulsion over the abyss which receives it, thus curbs 

 its velocity. The immense body of water fills the no- 

 ble contour of this long and heavy ten-ace. The land 

 seems to tremble from a distance by the weight of its fall; 

 the air, on being displaced by the water, seems at first 

 to hiss or sigh; which sound at length increases, till the 

 noise is so terrific that the ear is not able to sustain it ; 

 nor can the eye at last comprise the extent of the view, 

 or the mind sufficiently admire the awful appearance of 

 the whole." On approaching nearer, " all is changed, 

 and nothing prevails but confusion, chaos, or the most 

 horrid distraction. There are then no longer to be 

 seen that uniformity of masses, that beauty in the' 

 groupes, that majesty in the combination ; but we be- 

 hold innumerable rocks, broken, steep, and dispersed, 

 presenting frightful points, which ajrpear to be rising 

 from behind the water and the trees. It is no longer 

 a river, but an ocean, roaring and rushing with fury 

 against the shapeless masses which obstruct its course." 

 The Narenta is in the eastern district of Dalmatia; it Narenta. 

 rises from the swampy lake of Mostar, and after run- 

 ning a pretty long course, and receiving several tribu- 

 tary streams, empties itself by three mouths into a gulf 

 of the same name. This river is large, but does not 

 admit of navigation far up by any boats, but those of a 

 small size. Its waters are brackish above twelve miles 

 from the sea. The tide flows considerably farther. It 

 abounds in a variety of excellent fish. The plain through 

 which the lower part of it flows is of a rich and pro- 



