Montenegro

Montenegro (Turkish Karadagh, native Tchernagora, each name meaning "black mountain") is a principality in the N.W. of Turkey in Europe, having Bosnia and Herzegovina on the N., Bosnia on the E., Albania on the S., the Adriatic Sea and part of Dalmatia on the W. It has an area of 3,486 square miles, and consists of elevated ridges interspersed with peaks varying from five to eight thousand feet high, and presenting an appearance that has been likened to a sea of waves turned into stone. There are fertile plains and valleys, such as Tzernitza and the valleys of Bielopavlich, which are watered by several streams, the chief being the Moratsa, which flows into Lake Scutari. The hills are clothed with valuable forests of oak, beech, ash, holly, sumac, and other trees. There is not much game, but fish abound, especially large trout and carp, which are salted and exported to Vienna. Agriculture and fishing are the chief pursuits, and there are hardly any manufactures beside that of a coarse kind of cloth. Sheep, goats, and pigs are reared, and maize, tobacco, cabbages, cauliflower, potatoes, walnuts, and many kinds of fruit, such as peach, pomegranate, mulberry, olive, almond, apple, are grown. The chief exports are mutton-hams, salt fish, sardines, sumac, cattle, hides, and agricultural and dairy produce. The capital, Cetigne, or Cettinje, is only a large village, and there are two ports, Antivari and Dulcigno. The bulk of the population is a Servian branch of the Slavonic race, of the orthodox faith, and they speak a Slav dialect. They are a tall, robust race, of simple habits, and are accustomed to go about fully armed. There are also about 10,000 Mohammedans in the district added to Montenegro in 1878 by the Treaty of Berlin. The country has a chequered history, and has had a long struggle to maintain its independence, now secured.