mixing it with bran, or bad rye meal, make a bitter bread, to
fupport their miferable life.
L E T T E R ir.
O f the Littoral Part o f the Mountain M orlac ca, o f L i k a ,
ana the IJland o f Pa g o .
rT 'H E coaft of the mountain'!Morlacca, from Segna to the Auftri-
an confine, nearLuoovojand further inward, in the channel
o f Obroazzo, as far as the mouth of the river Zermagna, the
jVedanius o f the ancients, is a tradl o f country for the moil part
rough, craggy, woody, and incapable o f cultivation; inhabited
by poor people, who almoft all lead a paftoral life. In ancient
times, there were feveral cities mentioned by geographers; and
Pliny in particular takes notice o f J o f pic a or Lopfica, Orthepula,
and Vegium. In our times, all that coaft is very thinly inhabited,
and the places hardly deferve to be mentioned, Carlobago
alcne excepted. S. Giorgio, Lucovaz, and Jablanaz, are miferable
hamlets, where, in times paft, the facility o f trading in timber
brought feveral families that now languifh in mifery and oppref-
fion, fince the court of Vienna has deprived them o f that means
o f fubfiftence. The few ftoney fields that^ are cultivated near
the habitations, hardly yield double, the feed. Yet, at Jablanaz,
I faw good grapes and figs, and a fpecimen o f very fine faffron,
belonging to the Signori Streglianaz,ich, an ancient and noble
family o f the Ufcocchi, who, having loft the old warlike fierce-
nefs, preferves the fentjments of cordial hofpitality. Jablanaz
has a very fmall harbour, and can only contain a few barks o f
little burden; in the middle times it was fortified with lateral
towers.
towers. The hill above Jablanaz is o f hard limeftone; there
is alfo fome marble of a pale red, and breccia, that, near the fea,
is fp u n g y ; but compa£t, where the fait water does npt reach.
The Bunievei, or Catholick Morh.cchi o f thefe parts, ufe to throw
a great quantity o f honey into the coffins o f their dead. The
fpirit of farming is fo well eftablilhed at Vienna, that, for the
annual contribution o f four florins,- the commanding officer at
Jablanaz has an excluiive right o f hunting in all that diftrift,
which is about forty miles round. The fame officer adminifters
iuftice, though by no means learned in the. law, and hence the
law fuits are decided, and delinquents are puniihed in a very
fummary and military way.
Carlobago is a town that contains not above a thoufand inhabitants,
without walls or fortifications, excepting an infignifi-
cant fquare tower. Notwithftanding the Auftrian government
gives it the title o f city. It is fituated on the fea fide, at the
foot of a very craggy naked mountain, and oppofite to the ifland
o f Pago, which is alfo on that fide, rocky, without harbours,
barren, and quite bare of trees or- grafs. The breadth o f the
channel is not above two miles, yet it is fometimes impaflfable
for feveral days fucceffively, on account o f the violence o f the
wind. In former times, there was a caftle called $crijfa, where
Carlobago now ftands; it belonged to the Lorquati, Counts .of
Corbavia, who kept a Vifcount in i t ; and when that family was
extinil, it became one o f the ftrong places of the Vfcqcchi, and
was in 1616 burnt, and demoliihed from the foundations, by
the Venetians, who did not care to keep pofleffion o f that horrid
country to which nature has denied even water to drink. Yet
in fpite of the difadvantages o f fituation, the ruins o f Seri fa arofe
again, being found the moil convenient place to export the com-
X x x modities