The country, which occupies such an invidious position politically, lies between the two rivers Drave and Save, and it falls naturally into two parts—the plain between these rivers, and the mountainous country stretching along by the Adriatic. It might be imagined that the plain would be rich and the most valuable part of the land, but on the contrary it is the mountains which bring in the revenue, for they are thickly covered with trees, such as the pine and beech and chestnut, and the narrow valleys between are astonishingly fertile. In these forests herds of swine are fed, and in the valleys and the plain there is a good deal of mixed agriculture. The people are not idle, and the breeding of cattle and horses is one of their principal occupations. A very large number of the inhabitants are continually migrating to America, but the land holds them nevertheless and calls them back, when they have made money, often by the hardest toil in the mines; they nearly always return to spend their little fortune in their native land, which remains in their minds as the ideal of all that is beautiful and desirable.
We have so far spoken of the joint provinces as a whole, but in reality it is Slavonia that occupies the rather featureless interior plains and Croatia that includes the rich and varied scenery along the coast, where the mountains are probably as rich in minerals as those of Transylvania, were they properly worked. The Croatians have not shown themselves amenable to industrial work, they have hardly as yet got beyond the first stage in the history of a nation, when agriculture or the supply of man’s natural needs from the soil is the prime work. In Southern Croatia the climate is often beautiful, and warm enough for the growth of the vine as well as lemons and oranges, but the winds sweep sorely over the northern plains and the temperature thus varies in extremes.
The capital of the country is Agram, and the only port that Hungary boasts, namely Fiume, lies in Croatia, though it is not of it, for the port was presented to the Hungarians by Maria Teresa, and has ever since enjoyed autonomy. When it is realised that this is Hungary’s only outlet to the sea, its importance may be realised, even though it has in many ways been overshadowed by the Austrian port of Trieste.
Fiume has 40,000 inhabitants of a curiously mixed blend; the majority, between 17,000 and 18,000, are Italians; there are only about 3000 Hungarians and between 7000 and 8000 Croatians, while Illyrians, Germans and Wends form the surplus. The town is governed by a royal Hungarian governor, and is described as corpus separatum of Hungary. It possesses picturesque, narrow, and irregular streets in the old part and a fine new quarter also. There are relics of Roman occupation, especially well seen in a triumphal arch dating from Roman days; and it has also a cathedral dating from 1377. Millions have been spent on the harbour, which has a breakwater about 4000 feet in length. The chief factories and works in the town are the Whitehead torpedo factory, paper-mills, paraffin-refining works, and shipbuilding yards.
Beyond the bridge over the Fiumara, on Croatian territory, adjoining Fiume, is the Croatian town of Susak, well-built and pleasant. In the mountain heights above, through which the train has wound down to the coast there are many tunnels and vast precipices. The terrible wind called the Bora, which rages around here at times, is so violent that trains have had to be protected by the building of a high stone wall along the side of the line. Before this was done they were sometimes actually caught up by the whirling force of the wind, swept from the lines and dashed into the depths below the embankment on which they traversed the mountain side.
The western slopes of the tableland, which here drops to the sea, are called the Karst, and differ from the pleasant wooded heights inland already described. The Karst is in three terraces, formed of gigantic blocks of stone heaped on each other in irregular masses, and it is only in the crevices and deep hollows that any sort of vegetation, and then only scraggy and stunted bushes, will grow. Forests used to extend over these heights, but their exposure to the full force of the terrible Bora, and their wanton destruction by man during the Venetian occupation, has stripped the rocks bare, and they stand ugly and ragged, vast and lonely, as a rampart to the ocean.
To the south of Croatia-Slavonia lies another composite country, namely Bosnia-Herzegovina, which by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 was henceforward to be administered by Austria, a cession bitterly resented by Servia and Montenegro, as it drove a wedge between them. They knew well that once the Austrian foot was there in military occupation never again would it be withdrawn, and the future proved them right, for in 1908, when the Turk was in no position to protest, the whole control passed into the power of Austria, and the composite country became as much a part of the Dual Monarchy as those further north. Both countries which compose it are mountainous, many of the peaks rising to 6000 feet, and for the most part covered with forest. Lying so far south crops can here be raised which would not be attempted elsewhere. Those boxes or bottles of prunes, which so delighted our youth, come in large quantities from Bosnia, and are simply dried plums, though the flavour is so different from the fresh article. The vine, olive, fig, and pomegranate flourish in Herzegovina, but the chief product is tobacco. Mr. Geoffrey Drage says:
Tobacco is to the inhabitants of Herzegovina what the plum is to the inhabitants of Bosnia, the one all-important crop and article of commerce. Tobacco is a government monopoly, but a monopoly which has proved a boon, and given a great impetus to this branch of agriculture. The peasants know they have a certain market for all the tobacco they can grow, and, though the price paid to growers had diminished by 1904, the peasants still find it worth while to grow a crop, and the cultivation is actually increasing.
The names of Bosnia-Herzegovina are translated by some as “the land of salt” and “the land of stones,” but in regard to Bosnia “the land of coal” would be more appropriate, for it is said that the whole country is one vast coal-field, and if ever the time comes that our present supplies have run out and we have not yet learned to substitute petroleum, it is probable that here will be found the supplement. There is plenty of pasture-land in the country, and cattle, sheep, and goats are raised in large numbers, but the drawback to it all is that there is no coast-line or seaport, and therefore produce is turned inland for want of ready access by the coast, where the way is barred by Dalmatia. When the Austrians annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina one of the reasons they gave for doing so was that Dalmatia had no hinterland, that it stood in the air so to speak, a thin strip without support, but the reason seems somewhat frail; if it had been the other way and the Austrians had owned Bosnia-Herzegovina and sought an outlet to the sea-coast, as many another restless nation is now seeking to do, their object could have been more sympathetically considered.
The costume of the Bosnians is peculiar and picturesque; the men wear the red Turkish fez and their nether garments are fashioned in many and complicated folds around the seat, ending in extremities as tight as putties. This garment is secured by a wide sash or cummerbund, and above it is a white shirt covered by a sleeveless waistcoat richly embroidered. A Bosnian gentleman in full dress is a very beauteous object.