On the left bank of the Drechnitza, about half-way between its confluence with the Narenta and the house of our hosts, is a small valley named Petral; it derived its name from the following circumstances:—­For seven years after the rest of Bosnia and the Herzegovina had been overrun by the Turks under Mehemet II., the people of this valley maintained an unequal combat with the invaders.  The gallant little band were under the orders of one Peter, who lived in a castle on the summit of a height overlooking the plain; this plain could only be approached by two passes, one of which was believed to be unknown to the Turks.  In an evil hour an old woman betrayed the secret of this pass, and Peter had the mortification one morning of looking down from his castle upon the armed Turkish legion, who had effected an entrance during the night.  Like a true patriot, he sank down overcome by the sight, and died in a fit of apoplexy; whence the valley has been called Petral to this day.

A few ruins mark the spot where the church stood of yore, and four tombstones are in tolerably good preservation.  Beneath these repose the ashes of a bishop and three monks; the date on one of them is A.D. 1400.

Early the following morning we started for the bills, where the chamois were reported to be numerous.  After about three hours’ climbing over a mass of large stones and rocks, the ascent became much more precipitous, trees and sand taking the place of the rocks.  In course of time we reached a plateau, with an almost perpendicular fall on the one side, and a horizontal ridge of rock protruding from the mountain side beneath.  Four of the party, which numbered eight guns in all, having taken up positions on this ridge, the remainder, with a posse of boys, made a flank movement with the view of taking the chamois in reverse.  The shouting and firing which soon commenced showed us that they were already driving them towards us from the opposite hills.  The wood was here so thick that occasional glimpses only could be obtained of the chamois, as they came out into the open, throwing up their heads and sniffing the air as though to detect the danger which instinct told them was approaching.  Two or three of the graceful little animals blundered off, hard hit, the old Turk being the only one of the party who succeeded in killing one outright.  The bound which followed the death-wound caused it to fall down a precipice, at the bottom of which it was found with its neck dislocated, and both horns broken short off.  If the ascent was difficult, the descent was three-fold more so.  The rocks being the great obstacle to our progress, the mountaineers managed well enough, jumping from one to another with the agility of cats; but to those unaccustomed to the kind of work, repeated falls were inevitable.  How I should have got down I really cannot say, had I not intrusted myself to providence and the strong arm of one of those sons of nature.