" Fortunately the summer nights are short; we were up with
the early birds, and started before the heat of the day for Moravicza,
another mining village.
It was a pretty ride. We went for some way alongside a mineral tramway,
which followed the bend of a charming valley. Then we came upon a new
piece of road, made entirely of the whitest marble; it looked almost
like snow. Afterwards our track lay through a dense forest of majestic
trees. We could not have found our way unassisted, but one of the mine
inspectors from Dognacska had been sent with us. It was a delicious
ride, the air still cool and fresh. Sometimes we were in the forest,
and later, skirting a rocky ravine, we followed for a while a mountain
stream. It was rough work for the horses, and once, when leading my
horse over a narrow foot-bridge, he slipped off and rolled right over in
the bed of the stream. Luckily he was none the worse for the accident:
these small Servian horses bear a great deal of knocking about. It was
surprising that the baggage did not suffer, but except getting a little
wet, there was no harm done.
This district is famous, I believe, for several kinds of rare beetles
and butterflies. I saw some beautiful butterflies myself during our
ride.
Before reaching Moravicza we passed some large iron mines, but they were
not in full swing. In the last century the copper mines of this district
yielded extraordinary returns.
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