osna--Trout-fishing--Tzenitza--Zaptiehs--Maglai--Khans--Frozen
Roads--Brod--The Save--Austrian Sentry--Steamer on the
Save--Gradiska--Cenovatz--La lingua di tre Regni--Culpa
River--Sissek--Croatian Hotel--Carlstadt Silk--Railway to
Trieste--Moravian Iron--Concentration of Austrian Troops--Probable
Policy--Water-Mills--Semlin--Belgrade.

The shortening days, and the snow, which might now be seen in patches on
the mountain sides, warned us of approaching winter, and the necessity
for making a start in order to ensure my reaching Constantinople before
the Danube navigation should be closed. My illness and other
circumstances had combined to detain me later than I had at first
intended, and I was consequently compelled to abandon the idea of
visiting either Svornik or Banialuka, two of the largest and most
important towns in the province. The former of these places is
interesting as being considered the key of Bosnia, in a military point
of view; the latter, from the numerous remains, which speak eloquently
of its former importance. The navigation of the Save, too, having
become practicable since the heavy rains had set in, I resolved upon
the simplest route of reaching Belgrade, viz., that by Brod. In coming
to this decision, I was influenced also by my desire to see the valley
of the Bosna, in and above which the road lies for almost the whole
distance. No site could have been more judiciously chosen, than that in
which Serayevo is built. Surrounded by beautiful hills and meadows,
which even in November bore traces of the luxuriant greenness which
characterises the province, and watered by the limpid stream of the
Migliaska, its appearance is most pleasing. As we rattled down the main
street at a smart trot on the morning of the 16th November, in the
carriage of Mr. H., the British Consul, it was difficult to believe
oneself in a Turkish city. The houses, even though in most cases built
of wood, are in good repair; and the trellis-work marking the feminine
apartments, and behind which a pair of bright eyes may occasionally be
seen, materially heightens the charms of imagination. The road for the
first six miles was hard and good. It is a specimen of Osman Pacha's
handiwork, and is raised considerably above the surrounding fields, the
sides of the road being rivetted, as it were, with wattles. At the end
of that distance, and very near the confluence of the Migliaska and the
Bosna, I separated fr