The sides of some of the mountains are covered, as I have before said, with dense forests of great value.  There the oak, ash, elm, beech, walnut, red and white pine, and the red and yellow maple, grow in rich profusion, awaiting only the hand of man to shape them into ’the tall mast’ and the ‘stately ship.’  But man, in these benighted lands, is blind to the sources of wealth with which his country teems, and to nature it is left in the lapse of years to ’consume the offspring she has herself produced.’  The difficulty of transporting the timber to a market has been always alleged by the natives as their reason for neglecting to turn the forests to account; but this is a paltry excuse, for with abundance of rivers to float it to the coast, and a neighbour so anxious to monopolise the trade of the country as Austria has shown herself, little doubt can be entertained of the possibility of its advantageous disposal.  As far back as 1849 an Austrian Company, foreseeing the benefits which would accrue from the employment of capital in these parts, obtained a concession of the pine forests for twenty years.  Saw-mills were built near Mostar, and roads and shoots were constructed.  About 5,000 logs had been cut and exported, when the works were stopped by Omer Pacha on his arrival to suppress rebellion in the country in 1850.  This arbitrary measure on his part has been much reprehended, and does without doubt require explanation.

It should, however, be remembered that the contract, which was likely to prove most remunerative to the Company, and of but little advantage to the Turkish government, had been granted by Ali Pacha of Stolatz, the last Civil Governor, to whom a tithe of the products was being paid.  He had in the meanwhile thrown off his allegiance, and consequently the only blame which can attach to Omer Pacha is a want of judgement, caused by over-zeal for the interests of his government.  The case was afterwards litigated, and the Porte was mulcted 200,000 florins as an indemnity for their breach of the contract.  This was liquidated from Ali Pacha’s property, and the firman has been renewed for fourteen years since 1859.  The Austrian government has, however, forbidden the Company to avail themselves of it, as its members are engaged in legal proceedings.  The only saw-mill which I met with in the country was one at Boona, worked by an Hungarian, who is apparently doing a lucrative business.

The rivers in the country are of no great size or importance, but might in most cases be turned to account for the transport of timber or for irrigation.  The waters of some of the large rivers, it is true, are injurious to vegetation from their hardness, but this does not apply to all.  After the Narenta, the following are the most important:—­the Trebenitza, Pria, Taro and Moratcha, Yanitza, Boona, Boonitza, Bregava, Kruppa, Trebisat or Trebitza, Drechnitza, Grabovitza, Biela, Kaladjin-Polok, and the Drina.  It might be expected from its vicinity to Bulgaria, where such fine lakes are found, that the same would be the case in Herzegovina; but it is not so:  Blato, which is marked as a lake in all maps, is only such in winter, as with early spring the waters disappear.