l valley, occasionally broken by a low
waterfall. The copses which clothe the hillsides here and there are
vocal with the song of birds, and nightingales may be heard in plenty in
the spring. The situation is magnificent. The town stands upon the
summit of a promontory spreading out like the fingers of a hand, and at
its base the river foams and rushes, entering a deep winding ravine and
plunging beneath a rocky precipice several hundred feet high, on the top
of which a few houses appear. The steep sides are green with trees to a
certain height, and then the grey rock appears scantily covered with
grass in places; above the abyss swallows dart and hawks hover. On all
sides the rushing of water is heard, and fountains in the streets
betoken an unusual supply, for Istria is generally a thirsty land. The
castle is so close to the chasm that from one of the windows a stone can
be tossed into the water. The dwarf wall shown in the illustration runs
along the top of the precipice. Upon the door the date of 1785 is cut,
but the greater part of the walls with their machicolations belongs to a
reconstruction of the ancient castle in the fifteenth century. It is
still inhabited, and part of it is used for district offices, but there
is little of archaeological interest in city or castle. In the courtyard
is a well on a platform ornamented with stone balls to which twelve
steps ascend, a rather curious arrangement. The place for the bar which
fastened the doors is still there, but in these peaceful times they
appear to stand open day and night; at all events they were open when we
reached the place about 7 a.m., having left Pola soon after 5. In the
cathedral are a silver processional cross with figures of saints, and a
tabernacle of 1543, rich of its kind, also a picture by Girolamo da S.
Croce.

There was a cattle-fair on the day we were in the town; the place was
full of _contadini_, and the roads were thronged with cattle being
driven in for sale. The lambs were slung on donkeys' backs in couples,
confined in sacks with their heads out of the mouths, and one lively
little black fellow escaped and caused much excitement before he was
caught and reimprisoned. The type of the peasants is quite different
from that of those lower down the coast; the head is long, the nose
aquiline, and the countenance seamed with many deep wrinkles. The older
men wore one large earring in the right ear, hose of a thick whitish
woollen material, or