quarian relics
which I noticed on the march. At the extremity of the valley the pathway
winds to the SE., having the rugged Piwa, looking bleak and bare, on the
left, and the more wooded heights of Baniani on the right. The
configuration of the hills, and the sharp outline of the country
generally, combined with the indescribably wild and rocky character of
some parts of the foreground, and the sloping grass banks in others, to
produce a picture at once grand and picturesque; but it was a picture of
which the eye soon wearied and the appreciation palled. There, as
throughout the whole march to Niksich, the country abounds with the most
magnificent defensible positions; natural parapets, whence a most
destructive fire might be poured upon an advancing foe, and incapable of
being turned by any flank movement; positions, in short, constructed for
the enactment of a second Thermopylae. No signs of humanity were to be
found in that barren region. Here and there the carcass of a stray
horse, which had died probably of pure inanition, and afforded a scanty
meal to the birds and beasts of prey, was the only sign of aught that
had ever beat with the pulse of life. Leaving the main body, I came up
with a small party of engineer officers, employed in taking the angles
on the line of march. The serious inconvenience resulting from the want
of a good map of these countries is now much felt. True, it was
partially removed by the existence of a map of Montenegro, including a
portion of the Herzegovinian frontier, drawn by Major Cox[Q], R.E., and
published by the Topographical Department, a copy of which I had
presented to Omer Pacha, and which was much appreciated by him. Very
properly, however, he proposes that the country shall be surveyed by
Turkish officers, and a map constructed upon their observations. Its
accuracy will be somewhat doubtful, if we may judge from the crude
manner in which they set to work. The only instruments employed were
prismatic compasses, with which they jotted down angles at all the
salient points, an orderly dragoon counting his horse's paces in the
intervening time, which was occasionally as much as twenty minutes.
Passing these I reach the advance guard, and still pressing on I soon
find myself alone. No, not quite alone; another turn of the rocks brings
me abreast of a strange companion, his long flowing dress of yellow
surge, and Dervish's hat, with its hair-fringe, proclaim him to be one
of that large