THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



109 



Traces of petroleum, 

 too, have been found 

 by the Italians, and I 

 am told boring is, or 

 is about to be, under- 

 taken. Copper and 

 iron are believed to 

 exist in the hills about 

 the Malik Valley, and 

 coal, silver, and lead 

 are said to be present 

 elsewhere in the moun- 

 tains. 



Gold mines were 

 worked i n ancient 

 times and Albanian 

 silver was known to 

 the Venetians, but the 

 whole mountain coun- 

 try has lain neglected 

 for ages. It cannot be 

 doubted that with the 

 coming of the soldiers, 

 the building of roads, 

 and the development 

 of the country now 

 going on, especially in 

 sections occupied by 

 the Italians, there will 

 be a change in Alba- 

 nia and in its people. 



CLIMATE IN UPLAND 

 AND LOWLAND 



The climate of Al- 

 bania is considered 

 healthful in the up- 

 lands, though subject 

 t o violent changes, 

 which are trying to the 

 stranger, at certain 

 seasons, even if he is 

 confined to one lo- 

 cality. But when a 

 traveler, moving rap- 

 idly about the country 

 in a motor — the only 

 practicable way o f 

 traveling in these 

 days — rushes several thousand feet from 

 a mountain height, cold and windy and 

 probably snow-covered, into a warm, sun- 

 shiny valley and back again in the frac- 

 tion of an hour, it is well to have a care. 



May is the pleasantest month of the 



Photograph from Gen. George P. Scriven 



A REPRESENTATIVE OF" THE OLDEST RACE IN SOUTH- 

 EASTERN EUROPE 



The Albanian calls himself a "Skypetar" — Son of the Mountain 

 Eagle — and he deserves the appellation, for he has made his home 

 among the barren crags of his native land for many centuries, main- 

 taining to a remarkable degree his independence and his racial in- 

 tegrity. 



year and the valleys then look their best. 

 Snow, of course, lies in the mountains 

 until well into the spring, but seldom lasts 

 throughout the summer, as the tallest 

 peaks do not attain an elevation of more 

 than 8,000 feet. 



