There is a total want of arable land in this part of Servia, and the
pasture is neither good nor abundant; but the Ybar is the most
celebrated of all the streams of Servia for large quantities of trout.
Next day we continued our route direct South, through scenery of the
same rugged and sterile description as that we had passed on the way
hither. How different from the velvet verdure and woodland music of
the Gutchevo and the Drina! At one place on the bank of the Ybar,
there was room for only a led horse, by a passage cut in the rock.
This place bears the name of Demir Kapu, or Iron Gate. In the evening
we arrived at the frontier quarantine, called Raska, which is situated
at two hours' distance from Novibazar.
In the midst of an amphitheatre of hills destitute of vegetation,
which appeared low from the valley, although they must have been high
enough above the level of the sea, was such a busy scene as one may
find in the back settlements of Eastern Russia. Within an extensive
inclosure of high palings was a heterogeneous mass of new buildings,
some unfinished, and resounding with the saw, the plane, and the
hatchet; others in possession of the employes in their uniforms;
others again devoted to the safe keeping of the well-armed caravans,
which bring their cordovans, oils, and cottons, from Saloniki, through
Macedonia, and over the Balkan, to the gates of Belgrade.
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