Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/810

Rh 780 MONTENEGRO little better at first than a chaos of mountains, but on closer examination it appears that there are two distinct groups, an eastern and a western, divided by the Zeta- Moratcha valley. The loftiest summit is Dormitor, 8146 feet high, in the new territory near the north frontier, next come Kom Kutchi (8031), Kom Vassoyevitzki(7946), and Dormitor Schlime (7936). l Had the original frontier of the Berlin congress towards the south-east been retained it would have run along the still higher Prokletia range. Many of the mountain-tops remain white with snow for the greater part of the year, and from some of the dark ravines the snow never disappears. The south-western portion of the country consists of limestone, the north eastern mainly of Palaeozoic sandstones and schists with underlying trap. 2 In their general aspect the two regions are strikingly distinct. The former seems, as it were, one enormous mass of hard crystalline rock, bare and calcined, with its strata dipping to the south-west at an angle often of 70 degrees. Its whole surface has been split by atmo spheric agencies into huge prismatic blocks, and the cracks Map of Montenegro. have been gradually worn into fissures several fathoms deep. Ln some places the process has resulted in clusters of im mense sharp-pointed crags, the sides of which are furrowed by rain-channels, while in others there are countless funnels running down into the rock for 200 feet and more. In like manner the interior of the mass is hollowed out into immense galleries and caves, and during the rainy season subterranean landslips frequently produce local earthquakes, extending over an area of 10 or 12 miles. The sandstone region, on the other hand, presents lofty but rounded forms, clothed for the most part with virgin forest or rich alpine pasture, broken here and there by dolomitic peaks. 1 Bull, de la Soc. de Gtogr., Paris, 1881. 2 Dr Tietze, whose full report was to appear in the Jahrb. der ReicJisan- xtalt for 1883, informed the writer that the existence of the following formations in Montenegro lias been clearly ascertained : (1) Palaeozoic schists, (2) Wirfen strata of Lower Trias, (3) Trap of the Paleozoic and Wirfen strata, (4) Triassic limestone, (5) Jurassic limestone, (6) Cretaceous limestone, (7) Flysch, in part certainly Eocene, and (8) Neogenic or younger Tertiary formations. The existence of nummulitic limestone is still doubtful. The watershed between the Adriatic and the Black Sea crosses the country from west to east in a very irregular line, the southern districts being drained by the Zeta- Moratcha river system, which finds its way to the Adriatic by Lake Scutari and the Boyanna, while the streams of the northern districts form the head-waters of the Drina, which reaches the Danube by way of the Save. The Zeta, rising in Lake Slano, is remarkable for its subterranean passage beneath a mountain range 1000 feet high. At a place called Ponor the water plunges into a deep chasm, seeming almost to lose itself in foam, but at a distance, of several miles it reappears on the other side of the mountains. Its whole course to its junction with the Moratcha is about 30 miles. Rising in the Yavorye Planina, the Moratcha sweeps through the mountain gorges as a foam ing torrent till it reaches the plain of Podgoritza ; then, for a space, it almost disappears among the pebbles and other alluvial deposits, nor does it again show a current of any considerable volume till it approaches Lake Scutari. In the neighbourhood of Duklea 3 and Leskopolye it flow.s through a precipitous ravine from 50 to 100 feet high. In the dry season it is navigable to Zhabliak. The whole course is about 60 miles. Of the left-hand tributaries of the Moratcha the Sem or Tsievna deserves to be mentioned for the magnificent canon through which it flows between Most Tamarui and Dinosha. On the one side rise the mountains of the Kutchi territory, on the other the immense flanks of the Prokletia range, the walls of the gorge .varying from 2000 to 4000 feet of vertical height. Lower down the stream the rocky banks approach so close that it is possible to leap across without trouble. The Ryeka issues full-formed from an immense cave south east of Cettinye (Tsettinye) and falls into Lake Scutari. The three tributaries of the Drina which belong in part to Montenegro are the Piva, the Tara, and the Lim, respect ively 55, 95, and 140 miles in length. The Tara forms the northern boundary of the principality for more than 50 miles, but the Lim leaves the country altogether after the first 30 miles of its course. Great alterations have taken place on Lake Scutari in recent times. The river Drin, which previous to 1830 entered the Adriatic to the south of Alesia near S. Giovanni di Medua, subsequently changed its course so as to join the Boyanna just below its exit from the lake ; one of the chief results has been to raise the level of the lake, and so to flood the lower valleys of the tributary streams. When the International Frontier Com mission was at Scutari in April 1879, the water stood 8 feet deep in some of the principal streets, and the inundation of city and suburbs lasted that year eight months. A few small lakes are scattered among the mountains, and it is evident that their number was formerly much greater. The plain or hollow of Cettinye was doubtless filled with water at no very distant (geological) date, and even now, when the sudden rains cannot escape fast enough by the ordinary subterranean outlet, the royal village suffers from a flood. If the new territory be left out of view, there is but little farming land in Montenegro ; the peasant is glad to enclose and protect the veriest patches of fertile soil retained by the hollows in the mountain sides, and one may see &quot; flourishing little crops not a yard square.&quot; &quot; The largest landed proprietor is the holder of 60 acres &quot; (Denton, Montenegro, p. 143) ; the other freehold estates vary from 2 to 20 acres, and it is usually not to the individual but to the house or family that the ownership belongs. Woods and pastures are the common property of the clan (pleme~). The people live in small stone-built cottages, grouped for the most part in little villages, and their whole life is 3 Duklea is the name still borne by the ruins of the Roman Doclea, often, but wrongly, called Dioclea from its association with the family of Diocletian.