Except in a few places, the whole extent of the ridge is impassable−−steep precipices, rugged and abrupt ascents, lofty rocks and impending crags, render the general face of the mountains so difficult, as to repel all attempts to climb them. The chain may be said to consist of three branches; two lower ridges rising at each side parallel to the great one. The intervening valleys are exceedingly beautiful: they form extensive sequestered tracts, shut out, as it were, from the rest of the world, and abounding in every production that the fecundity of nature could supply, or the most elaborate industry produce. Some of these spots exhibit, in the wildness of the descent, all the beauties of a cultivated taste: pure streams of clear water rippling over pebbled beds, skirted by copse-wood, and margined by swards of the richest grass, through which the road winds like a gravel-walk in the young plantations of an English demesne; in other places, expanding into broad meadows filled with sheep and horned cattle, or corn-fields covered with growing grain in various stages. In the midst of these pastoral scenes are many villages of singular appearance; and cottages scattered about without any regularity or arrangement. They are built of wicker-work. An oblong space is marked out, circular at one end, and square at the other; round this area, wattles or short poles are stuck in the ground, and between them, strong willows are interwoven, so as to form a large basket; on this, poles are laid for the roof, or some of the wattles are left long enough to be bent for the purpose. The top is then thatched with straw, and the basket-work plastered with mud of a light grey colour. The entrance is at the square end, where the roof projects considerably, and is supported on pillars, the whole exhibiting a pretty and elegant cottage, with a portico and colonnade in front. The floor is spread with thick striped woollen carpets, on which the family sit by day and sleep by night. In winter the fireplace is supplied with logs set on end, to receive a fire six or seven feet high of blazing wood. Every cottage is secured with a wicker-work enclosure, generally filled with corn-stacks and cattle; and the peasantry of this wild and remote region enjoy a cleanliness, comfort, and abundance, that render them some of the happiest on the continent of Europe. Among other objects of cultivation on the Low Balkans, is the rose which produces the attar, and from hence it is sent to Constantinople, where it is sold in the bazaars, and exported to other countries: the refined and elegant of polished nations becoming indebted to these simple peasants for the richest and most exquisite perfume in nature.