Delta della Narenta

“The coast of Dalmatia from Ragusa to Spalato is almost entirely unknown to modern tourists, although the Delta of the Narenta is, without exception, that part of the coast in which Nature has poured out her territorial wealth with a liberality which equals, if it does not surpass, that of the plains on the opposite coast of Apulia; but it is, at the same time, the most uncultivated and the most unhealthy spot in Dalmatia. The Ragusans speak of the Delta of the Narenta just as the Romans spoke of the Pontine marshes before they were drained. When I talked of going there, they shook their heads, and shrugged their shoulders, as if I were going into a plague-hospital; and one said, that if I caught the fever, I might never have the pleasure of smelling a London fog again. […]. Meeting at the house of a friend the principal merchant and agriculturist of the Delta, he declared that the climate was better than that of Ragusa, and that he was always ill in the city, and never well again until he got back to the Narenta. I then recounted this anecdote in glee to the Ragusans, who answered, that if a frog were taken out of a marsh, he was unwell until thrown in the water again (pp. 200-201).

The Narenta is the most considerable of all the rivers that flow into the east of the Adriatic, from Friuli to Greece; its course is not extended in comparison with that of other rivers, but it collects all the waters of Herzegovina, and in the rainy season deposits the rich humus in these fertile plains. The attention of the Government seems at length to have been drawn tonthe advantages likely to be derived from the drainage and cultivation of this district, for which two methods present themselves. The first is the so-called bonificazione per sedimento, which arbitrarily regulates the direction of the river during the rains, when the water is full of alluvial matter, and then spreads them over the marshy land, and, restraining the sediment within fixed bounds, produces a slow spontaneous rise of the soil; the other method is the usual drainage by ditches and canals. The first of these methods is certainly the most complete, but as it could scarcely be effected under an expense of a million and a half of florins, the other plan seems the more feasible; for although by canalisation a considerable amount of surface would be lost for cultivation, yet a commencement can be made with a few thousand florins, and the accumulating revenues of the first years would gradually furnish the funds to complete the whole. There is another circumstance worthy of notice that recommends the latter plan; it is the silk culture that must form the future mine of wealth of the Narenta, and the mulberry not only produces a large quantity of leaves when planted on the ridge edging a river or canal, but their roots, interlacing themselves in the embankment, are the best preservatives of the labours of drainage (pp. 217-218).

The climate at present is so bad that it deserves notice. Along with the heat of summer, and the humidity of winter, the mephitic vapours arising from the large earth-enriching deposits of putrefied animal and vegetable matter are most injurious to human life; the most healthy suffer from sluggish digestion, and obstinate liver complaints arise from the imperfect oxygenisation of the air; so that last year, in Fort Opus, in a population of 680 souls, the deaths were 58, and the births 30, while the average deaths in the corresponding latitudes of southern Europe are 35 per thousand. The deadly fevers commence in August, and the deaths usually take place in November and December; before, therefore, a colony be settled, a few preliminary canals ought to be cut by the convicts of the military frontier, to avert the evil effects of the insalubrity of the climate (pp. 219-220)”.