Were we, one kept asking oneself, passing through what some day may become one of the Black Countries of Europe? Would, as the world grew older, something of the tremendous energy of our Midlands burst forth upon this stagnant valley—blasting, boring, blackening, metamorphosing its every feature? Mountains rose around us overgrown with primeval forest—habitations were few and far between. What there were, were miserable hovels—each in its mangy patch of maize—more ruinous than any we remembered having seen in Bosnia. It was hard to transform such into the busy streets of a great city—the silence of the woods seemed too inveterate to be ever broken by the crash of a steam-hammer. The hornpipe performed by our waggon, over what the Turks were pleased to call a road, was a positive relief to such desolation; and yet what stretch of imagination could convert it into an iron-way, or our ambling Bosnian pony into a locomotive? We seemed, however, to detect one little omen of the future, and accepted the augury: at one spot the foliage of some neighbouring beech-trees had been browned away prematurely by the fumes of a primitive forge. And why, it will reasonably be asked, is all this mineral wealth allowed to rust in the bosom of mother earth? Are there not miners in plenty who go further afield than Bosnia in search for precious metals? Yes. But in Australia, even in California, there is something like civilized government. There are railways—there are roads; those in authority do not look upon the successful digger as their natural prey. They are, at any rate, too canny to kill the goose with the golden egg. But here, not only are there natural obstacles serious in any country, but before any mining can be set on foot a long stretch of road must first be made, to be kept up at the expense of the projectors; add to this, that even when an avenue to one of the highways of the country is thus opened out, it will probably be found impossible to conduct traffic of any magnitude along them; and that there is scarcely a bridge in the country which would support the weight of a heavy load of ores.