Bocche di Cattaro

"When you enter the Bocche, you will fancy that a Norwegian fjord somehow lost its way at the creation of the world and strayed into Southern waters. The narrow entrance between the threatening forts - where the waves lash themselves in fury on the cruel rocks - gives no hint of the extent of the lake-like sea within this forbidding portal, nor of the smiling beauty of its green banks (p. 165). It seems to be the fate of this lovely land to be never far from war's alarms, for to-day its hillsides bristle with forts, and your harmless camera is "taboo" as soon as your steamer sights Punta d'Ostra and as long as you remain in the Bocche, whether on board or ashore (p. 167).

After leaving Castelnuovo the steamer, on its way to Cattaro, passes through a comparatively narrow channel, which opens into the Bay of Teodo, the largest of the divisions of the Bocche [...]. The Bay of Teodo is almost closed to the north, so narrow is the opening through which you pass into the innermost part of the Bocche, that in the frequent wars of the Middle Ages a chain was fastened from shore to shore, to prevent an enemy's ships from entering, and from this it still has its name of the Canale delle Catene. It is as you approach Cattaro that the scenery becomes more and more reminiscent of Norway, sterner and wilder; the mountain-sides on the east rise like a wall of rock, but on the western shore little white houses and villages shine out from a background of greenest verdure (pp. 173-174).

In 1814 the Bocche was definitively given to the Austrians on payment of an indemnity to the Vladika (prince) of Montenegro, not altogether to the satisfaction of its inhabitants, who at that time still recalled their greater freedom ander Venice, and have opposed strongly the imposition of land-taxes and military service by Austria. The last measure, indeed, provoked an insurrection in 1869. [...]. To a stranger it seems that the Dalmatians sometimes expect more than their fair share of attention and financial help from the Government at Vienna (p. 171)".