Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-26
ON THE ADRIATlc 81
The Fascination Of Both Dalmatian History
and Beauty.
A Trip Down the Dalmatian Coast As
Most Interesting Oh
ject Lesson.

AT RaSuSa the IaSclnaliOH u bdIAudeiah
history gives place to the fascination OF
Dalmatian beau.', for shortly after leaving
the city of the old and most admirable
republic the steamer enters the Bocche al
Cattaro, which end in the formidable bar
rier of the mountains that separate Monte
negro from the territory of Austria. The
Bocche, or mouths of the Gulf of Cattaro
commence close to Castelnuovo. city
which was founded by a king Of Bosnia,
and which is famous in the history of these
once wild regions for the number of its
siege at the hands of Hungarians Ser
vians, Turks Venetians, Spanish and the
piratical marauders Of the Adriatic.
The scenery is superbly grand, and no de-
scription can convey a better impression
than that of Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, who
travelled in Dalmatia more than fifty years
ago: THE forms of the mountains" he
says, ARE bold and rugged: the sides are
and here and there church steeple
perched on a height, and village below
seeming to rise from the edge of the water
in which it is reflected. AS you proceed on
ward a succession of different views pre-
sent themselves, and the mountains rising
on either side with a majestic sweep from
the water, sometimes scarcely leaving
room for a village on the shore, gives this
winding gulf the appearance of an inland
lake. AT one time you are in bay half
mile across, which expands to a breadth of
three miles and you then pass through
narrow channel to a succession of land
locked bays. and SO great is the area of
water that the fleets of all Europe would
occupy but a small portion of this splendid
harbor. whose depth would allow them to
anchor quito close to the shore" On and
on the steamer goes, passing through a
panorama unequaled in Europe, a pano-
rama of mountain scenery, of vast gorgeS,
of wooded slopes and nesting villages, with
sky and sea that rival one another in the
intensity of their blueness, until one reaches
Cattaro the last town in Damatia built on
narrow spit of land at the water side,
and with the city walls running up the
precipftous mountain side in zigzags that
are almost perpendicular.
Cattaro now serves as the principal port
of Montenegro, the road between the Aus
TRAN city and Cettinje winding backward
and forward over a mountain pass six
thousand feet in height The little city,
squeezed in between the mountains and
sea, bears all the signs Of medieval or
igin. with its stout walls and drawbridge
and the wooden huts outside the gates,
where perpetual market Is carried on.
One misses the bright dresses of the Ear
antine and RagusaE women. The men still
wear the sandy-colored homespun of the
Morlaks of the rest of Dalmatia and three
times a week the market is thronged with
stalwart and picturesquely clad Monten-
egrlns. who are, however, required to de-
post their arms in house specially set
apart for the purpose before entering the
town. At Ragusa and Gravosa the Lion
of st. Mark is conspicuous by it's absence
put at Cattaro 1t faunts from gateways
and towers in all the glory of Venetian
conquest. The Dalmatian trip ends with
Cattaro. AMI thence the traveller may re-
turn direct to Trieste, stopping at LISA
ana Lesina on the way back, or instead Of
proceeding to Trieste he may take train at
Netkovfch into Bosnia Herzegovina and so
on to Budapest
Lesini is an island of the Latin poets Its
figs. its rosemary oil its honey. its saffron
no inn Il S1ta
worthy of the songs of an Ovid or a Hor-
ace. In the town from which the island
takes It's name is a loggia built by the fam
Gus San Michele under the Venetians, but
seven open arches and columns are all that
is left of a large municipal building the
bombardment by the Russians in 1907 when
they were attempting to disiodge the French
from the island. having destroyed 1T. In
classical days Lesina was the Island of
Pharos, and during the Venetian struggle
against the Turks was the chief port for
the protection of the commerce of the
Adriatic. The Venetian fleets always put
Into Lesina for repairs, a vast arsenal hav-
ing being established there and 1t was only
about q. quarter of a century before the
downfall of the great republic that the
beautifully situated city began to decline.
Now it possesses only its coasting trade
and its memories of stirring and glorious
past. A little distance outside the town,
where the narrow streets of gloomy houses
with overhanging balconies radiate from
trian marble, is a Franciscan monastery,
with beautiful garden that is well worth
visiting. The few monks remaining receive
travellers most courteously, and show with
pride an enormous cypress tree that has
grown outward and downward, instead of
upward, as well as Last Supper" of the
late Venetian school, hanging in their re-
fectory where the tables and benches are
wormeaten and worn with age. At the end
of the garden terrace, that Is gay with
lemon trees growing in great red pots, Is
the monks workroom, a curious contrast
to the refectory, the deserted cloisters and
the old world atmosphere of Lesina with
its benches and tables strewn with mega
tiVes and cameras and its apparatus and
tools for mending watches and making cleo
trio bells and telephones. But east and
west. new and old, march hand in hand all
over Dalmatia
To the north of Lesina is LISA, where the
Austrian feet. under Tegethoff, defeated
the Italians so disastrously in 1866 and
where a British fleet overcame the French
in 1911. There are monuments of both vic
tories, but the less said of either the better
Near by, however. there is a curious grotto
entered by narrow channel in small boats
from the sea, which rivals the famous Blue
Grotto of Capri in the intensity of its azure
coloring and the clearnesS of it's water; and
this is much more interesting than either of
the monuments raised to record the naval
glorieS of LISA.
This trip down the Dalmatian coast is an
interesting object lesson apart from all the
unsparngly on it's cities and its shores
since it enables even the most cursory trav-
eler to realize in some measure the varied
and opposed elements of which the dual
empire of Austria Hungary Is composed
In character and in languages Dalmatia is
Italian. its sympathies are purely Italian
and neither Austrian mlitarism nor Aus
trian education seem able to eradicate its
purely Latin tendencies. Rome and Venice
have left indeible traces of their rule and
power. In the ships in the Austrian navy
all orders have to be given in three Ian
guages-German. Czech and Italian-since
an order in any one of these languages
would not be understood by two-thirds of
the crew. This curious fact Is Indicative of
the Austro-Hungarian nation as a whole
and of all the provinces Damatia presents
the most interesting study, since she herself
is wholly Italian. while the German Czech
and Slav elements are gathered together
about her inland borders. No efforts are
being spared by the Austrian government
to utilize the facilities of this province, rich
alike in possibilities and in history, and to
set it on a path of progress. Hence the
perpetual juxtaposition of new and old the
latest modern inventions side by side with
the customs, dress and appliances of past
ages.
Why Birds Eggs Vary In Shape.
From the New York Press.
Nat hoe,