Next morning we discovered to our sincere pleasure that our Zaptieh had levanted, so that we had less difficulty than we anticipated in adhering to our original itinerary and defying the Travnik authorities. We drove a few miles further on the Serajevo road in our waggon, and then, stopping at a roadside Han, informed our driver that we had no further need of his services. He seemed at first considerably taken aback at this _coup_, but as we gave him all that was his due had he carried us to the capital, we left him well satisfied. Our next care was to secure a guide over the mountains to Foinica, nor were we long in finding a peasant willing to conduct us. He only asked us to excuse him a few minutes, and presently returned with a serviceable cutlass—rather an ominous beginning to our mountain journey! Our way ran along a gradually ascending footpath winding over the undulations of the Zahorina Planina, and through beechy defiles—the trees not indeed so fine as those of Troghìr and Mazulia Planina, but very beautiful. The flowers and ferns were much the same as we had seen before, but the beech-fern now for the first time became plentiful, and so surpassing rich were the tufts of male fern that we seemed to be passing through a gigantic fernery. Now and then we emerged on glades and a few scattered fields, with huts surrounded by fruit-trees, and there were plenty of wild walnut-trees on the mountain itself. As we ascended the main ridge we detected the first sign of the wealth stored up in the bowels of the mountain, from the mineral taste of the springs; and as we began to descend the southern slopes, the same cause seemed to blight the growth of beech and oak, and in some parts the mountain-side showed bare, while streaks of mica rock glittered like silver in the sunshine. The soil itself from a pale brown took rich ochreous hues, so that the range was not without its golden streaks as well. Here and there our path was strewn with bits of crystalline quartz, and we picked up pieces of iron, lead, and even—we believe—silver ore; and here and there fragments of noble crystals. At the summit our guide had left us, and a steep and rough descent brought us to the village of Foinica.