O f the true Sources o f the River K e r k a .
One of the rivers which I have followed with the greateil attention,
is the Litius o f the ancients, now called Kerka or
Karka, by the people o f the country ; it was, in Roman
times, the boundary between Liburnia and Dalmatia. The
fources o f this river are marked in all the maps, much farther up
than they really are; and even the moil accurate chorographers of
Dalmatia have confounded with the channel o f the Kerka, a
torrent which falls into it from a precipice, conveying the eventual
waters o f a moderate extent o f rocky mountains, known
by the inhabitants under the name o f Herfuvaz. This ridge o f
Herfuvaz joins the bottom o f the mountain Dinara with that o f
Gnat, and divides the plains watered by the Cettina, which is
the Tiburus o f the geographers, from the extenfive vallies that
are watered by the L ’itius.
This river forms itfelf into a large channel, within a
hundred paces o f the cavern from whence it iifues. The upper
bed o f which carries off the mountain waters, is
thirty feet wide, but it has only a ihort ipace to run
before it comes to Tapolye. * This torrent brings along with it
great quantities of a calcarions earth, which has a coagulating
quality, producing tartarious concretions. The hone o f the
Kerka, compofed by thefe mountain waters, is a beautiful fpe-
cies o f Phyto.typolitbus, fometimes more, and fometimes lefs
compact, in proportion tp the greater or leffer declivity o f the
waters by which it is formed; and retains the impreffions of
.various
* Tapolye has its denomination front the pop^rs which are common there;
the popular being called ‘Tapola in Illyric,
various'plants, which ufually grow in rtrrairlhes and rivets, or on
•their banks. * This kind of tartarous concretion is not only
curious but ufeful, being very convenient for building either
walls or arches, as it is eafily worked, refills the adlion o f the
air and is not weighty. The torrent j-uil mentioned as having
its courfe higher than what can properly be called the fqurce of
the Kerka, is not a permanent ilream; for towards the middle
o f A aguil, when I faw it, the cataradl from whence it falls was
nearly dry. The height o f the upper part of this cataradl, above
the bed of the Kerka, where it iflues out o f the cavern, is about
a hundred feet perpendicular; and when it is full o f water, mull
make a magnificent appearance, The ridge o f the precipice is
o f a kind o f fand-ilone coated with long gruís and mois; and
is curved, forming as it were ran arch, under which are feveral
cool grottos, all narrow at the entrance, and entirely defended
from the fun. The fides o f the mountain which
form the banks o f the Kerka in.that place, are all turned upfide
down, and Ihew the moll extravagant confufion in their flratifi-
cations. They are ileep and in fome places perpendicular; the
marble is o f the .common whitiih kind. Sometimes ¡there are
pieces o f a very hard fpotted or compound Lava, which ilrikes
fire and is o f a dark alh colour. I there obferved again the ¡fame
phenomenon which before ilruck me, in the ride from Spalatro
to Cliffa, on the fides pf the mountain, where I faw at a diilance
the
* Stalactites vegctahilia incrnjlans. Linn. Syfl. Nat.
yorus aques crujlaceus circa alia corpora aoncrctus* Wall.
Th e bodies o f the plants rot after the incraftation, and there remains nothing
but the imprelfton on the ilone.