• ,0 , j L! t 3o° 4 . ]
: A.ihort mile from the Vjoivod’shoufe there is a mine o f Ptf-
faffibaftm. identically Jikf that o f Bun. It appears that the Turks
worked it before the Venetian arms took poireffion of that tra£l
o f country; but i t is not, likely that they could draw much
profit from thence, oti account of its diftance from the fea, and
the inconvenience o f the road. 1 The fubftanee ;of the marble that
forms the exterior furface o f the hjlls o f Coccortd, and Vergoraz,
is alternatively brecoia, in iome parts fulloficeratamorphous, and
in ,others o f lenticular bodies, ^A.nummaU- , ,
•¡prf, V; y fib i« brh-rLs Iff aft» Hlii ,c«ii.|q n i l .biirk
Vegoraz is a wretched fort, that, in other times, defended a
village well peopled by the Turks, who notwithftanding the intermediate
mountain, judged it a convenient place for trade,
as being at no great diftance from the £)§gjj but it is now a heap
o f rubbifh, and inhabited only by a fcwr; poor families. The
fields that lie under the hill o f Vergoraz are all fubjedl to be overflowed,
whereby the inhabitants are often reduced to want, and
confequently to the neceffity o f robbing, or o f going to work
on the Turkjlh lands. A fuperintendent adminifters juflice in
thatfmali diftridl, and is ufually of, the family o f the Furiofi of
Almifla, which chiefly contributed totake the place from the
Turks,
A t the foot of Vergoraz lies the valley o f Rajlok, which is
■very level, and o f .no inconfiderable extent in length and breadth ;
the part o f it, that runs in between the ridge o f Vergoraz and
the craggy hills on the Ottoman confines, is traverfed by a
branch' of the river Trekijat, which, inftead o f running towards
the eaft, takes quite A different courfe, and falls in with the
roots, of the. mountains at .a place where they form an arch.
jMeeting with oppofition from them, and the gravel of an eventual
[ 3Q5 1
tual torrent, the Trebifat turns to the left, but inftead o f returning
to its natural courfe, it divides itfelf into feveral branches,
and falls into certain whirlpools, which are open in that
plain to receive it. At the time I was there, the waters that
ufe to fill the valley o f Rajlok forming a temporary lake, were
all gone ; and therefore I was able to examine the river near ly
as it was actually falling into thofe gulfs in feveral places. The
people o f Vergoraz have built fences o f dry ’ walls at the mouth
o f the whirlpools o f Rajlok, and fitted their nets to the remaining
apertures to intercept the filh that otherwife would efcape
under ground. It is plain, that the ill advifed avidity o f thus
catching a few fiih tends to diminiih the mouths o f thofe drains,
and confequently retards the drying o f the overflowed fields, to
the great damage o f the inhabitants o f the diftriiS. Whither,
and through what fubterraneous caverns, thefe. ingulfed waters
o f the Trebifat are conveyed, I know not; but perhaps thofe
who lend them to produce the river Florin twenty long miles
diftant,’ without even t&Tihg us that’they makethis'journey underground,
are miftaken. In like mariner Tfind in the prolegomena
o f Farlati another falfe affertion, regarding the river Lika,
which difappears much in the fame way as the T reb ija t.' That
learned author makes it fall into the fea near Carlobago; though
it is a fatft that the river Lika, arifing near Graccaz, lofes itfelf
under ground, at the foot o f the mountain Morlacca, in the valley
titCosHgne,< a. day’s’ journey diftant from the fea; and the ftream
Gafcbiza, or Gufchiza, after pairing under Ottacaz, falls into the
gulfs at' Sufzza- It is true, they fay.;.' that fome wooden veffels,
carried away by the river Suiiza, were1 found1 in the fea near
■the village o f S. G iirg k l on the -ch an nel ’ef'the M othcbi, ' where
there are fubmarine fpring'S* and' they will ilfo ’have it, that the
fubmarine fprings neat Siarigraelprbceid■-•fhoiA the ingulfed river
«Cika; hut notwithftanding all this; a geogtaph^rbMght' ft'ofifo
'mark the mouths of rivers in fuch placesl Contelius alfo, ac-
R r cording