llyrian provinces by
the old Napoleon, while on the main land on either side the sentinels of
Austria and Turkey were posted in close juxtaposition. Hence it has
received the name of "la lingua di tre regni."

At six o'clock the same evening we entered the River Culpa, at the mouth
of which is the town of Sissek.

It has a thrifty and cleanly appearance, and possesses two very fair
inns. The saloon of one of these appeared to be the rendezvous of the
opulent townspeople. Music, chess, billiards, and tobacco-smoke,
appeared to be the amusements most in vogue; the indulgence in the
latter being of course universal. Here I took leave of my companions of
the steamer, whose loss I much regretted, especially M. Burgstaller, a
gentleman of much intelligence, who requested me to examine his silk,
manufactured at Carlstadt, for the International Exhibition. On the
ensuing morning, I crossed the Culpa, and inspected the works connected
with the new railway to Trieste. It is intended to be in a state of
completion by the end of the coming autumn. Several Englishmen are
employed on the line, but I did not happen to come across any of them;
every information was, however, given me by a Croatian gentleman, who
has the superintendence of one-half of the line. Moravian iron is used
in preference to English, although its value on delivery is said to be
the greater of the two.

Sissek was in ancient days a place of no small importance. There, Attila
put in to winter his fleet during one of his onslaughts on the decaying
Roman empire. Traces of the ancient city are often dug up, and many
curiosities have been found, which would delight the heart of the modern
antiquarian. The return voyage to Brod was not remarkable for any
strange incident, the passengers being almost entirely Austrian
officers. The number of troops massed by that power on her Slavonian and
Croatian frontier would infer that she entertains no friendly feelings
to her Turkish neighbours. These amount to no less than 40,000 men,
dispersed among the villages in the vicinity of Brod, and within a
circumference of fourteen miles. At Brod itself no fewer than 4,000
baggage-horses were held in readiness to take the field at any moment.
It requires no preternatural foresight to guess the destination of these
troops. They are not intended, as some suppose, to hold in check the
free-thinking Slavonic subjects of Austria. Nor is that province used as
a penal settlement for the d