DINARA
115
fertile, but malarious. The line makes a bold curve to cross the swampy ground and to reach the farther side, where Dernis station stands at some distance from the town itself. After leaving Dernis we skirt the slopes of that isolated block of conglomerate called Monte Promina, on whose slopes the Dalmatian coal-pits were opened by the Rothschilds in 1834, and presently, after passing Kosovo, the high rock-perched fortress of Knin comes into view, and, to its right, the mass of dark Dinara. That mountain is geographically noteworthy, for on its slopes or from its buttresses spring all the important rivers of Dalmatia ; the Termagna, which reaches the sea at Obrovaz, the Kerka, which makes the Scardona fiord, and the Cetina, the longest of them, which we shall meet again at Almissa. The village of Knin consists of one long street running between the castle-hill and the river Kerka. It contains little of interest ; a few good houses, with gardens going down to the river, and the church of S. Barbara, which holds the tomb of Nicolò Borelli, the Venetian governor, whose son, Francesco, received the title of count and the fief of Vrana as a reward f°r his father’s services.
   1 he great feature of Knin is its fort or castle, a