The fastnesses of the Albanian hills

Just as the mountains of Wales and the Highlands of Scotland preserve languages and customs which have been driven from the open country of England, so the fastnesses of the Albanian hills have kept alive a difficult language that is older than classical Greek and customs which render the rude inhabitants of the country a picturesque subject for study. The conquering arm of the Turk reduced the Bulgarian inhabitants of open plains to complete subjection within a comparatively short time; but a century and a quarter was required to secure a less firm hold upon the mountainous lands of Serbia, while the inaccessible wilds of Albania and Montenegro were never completely subjected to Turkish power. Montenegro was the last Serbian stronghold to yield to Turkish supremacy and the first to regain complete independence.

The physical characteristics of a belt of country so difficult to traverse deserve a word of further description. In the north the mountains consist of submaturely to maturely dissected folds of the Appalachian type, trending northwest-southeast parallel to the northern Adriatic coast and rising from 5,000 to 8,000 feet above sea-level in the higher ranges. Between the hard rock ridges streams have excavated parallel valleys on the weaker beds, but these subsequent valleys are of little real service to man since they lie at right angles to the natural course of his movements between coast and interior. Farther south the rock structure is more complex, and the mountain ridges produced by erosion accordingly of more complicated pattern. Among the rocks involved in the mountain building, limestone is a conspicuous element, and its soluble nature has imposed a peculiarly forbidding aspect on the topography.

Most of the rainfall passes under-ground through sink-holes and smaller solution cavities and then finds its way through subterranean channels to a few principal rivers, lakes, or the sea. As a consequence much of the mountain country is dry and barren, springs are far apart, and the open water courses difficult of access because deeply entrenched in rock-walled gorges. The 4 4 gaunt, naked rocks of the cruel karst country ’7 are not only themselves of little value to mankind but they render inaccessible and therefore comparatively useless many excellent harbors on the east coast of the Adriatic.