Sarajevo was linked to Austria by a line through the Bosnia valley which joined the Sava valley trunk-line at the town of Brod. The Austrians also connected Sarajevo with the Dalmatian coast by a narrow-gauge line, which has a rack-and-pinion section and is quite unsuited for heavy traffic. It was largely a tourist line, Austria having done much to develop the Dalmatian coast as a tourist resort.
During the Austrian period Dalmatia may be said broadly to have had no railways of any account apart from this line. The multitude of small ports made coastal traffic easy, and the popula tion is chiefly centred in the towns on the fertile parts of the shore—for the coast is not uniformly productive. Dalmatia was not effectively linked with the interior, and without such links there was no hope of finding outlets on the national seaboard. The problem has not yet been solved, despite a certain amount of rail way construction. During the post-war period when feeling ran high between Italy and Yugoslavia all sorts of obstacles were put in the way of Italian coastal steamer services, and since Yugo slavia found it impossible to organize an effective national service, trade and the revival of tourist traffic were seriously hampered. Such facts are of importance because they give reasons for the intensity of the political feeling between Serbs and Croats, and the danger of a policy so centralized at Belgrade as to be out of touch with local needs. Railway construction in Dalmatia has led to the two ports of Sebenico (Sibenik) and Spalato (Split) being con nected via Knin and Gospic to Ogulin on the main route between Zagreb and Fiume. A branch line from Knin goes by a very indirect route via Prijedor to the main Sava valley line. Even if it were possible to build a number of railway lines between Dalma tian ports and the interior, the long and expensive haul would complicate their use. Further, the ports are not equipped for deal ing with heavy traffic. It would appear, therefore, as though Yugoslav maritime trade must continue to use foreign ports, especially Salonika, where there is a Free Zone, and Fiume.
Three great types of land-forms are represented in Yugoslavia: ( ) the western mountain belt which is a continuation of the Alpine folding; (2) the Danubian plains, or Pannonian basin of Austrian geographers, with their southern hilly rim ; (3) the much disturbed belt of country, with alternating hills and small plains, separating the western mountains from the crust-block of old rocks which forms the core of the Balkan peninsula; this is best called the Morava-Varder depression, from the great valley which traverses it from north to south. Speaking broadly, we may say
that (I) includes the Slovene lands, the western and south-western part of Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia, a large part of Bosnia, Herce govina and Montenegro. The extreme eastern edge of the Slovene lands, the eastern part of Croatia-Slavonia, the northern part of Bosnia and Serbia, with the whole of Voyvodina, fall into (2), while a large part of Serbia is included under (3).
Of these three types, however, the mountain belt in particular is too complex to be regarded as a unit. In the first place the moun tains of the north-west show some striking contrasts to the Dinaric Alps which margin the west coast of the Balkan Peninsula proper. The former are made up of the Julian Alps (Terglav, ft.), the Karawanken, the Steiner Alps (Grintovec, 8,395 ft.) and some smaller ranges, all with a general west to east direction. This means that the intervening valleys open towards the Danubian plains. North of the Karawanken lies the valley of the Upper Drava, of which, however, only a comparatively small part lies in Yugoslavia. The river may be said to emerge from the mountain to the plain section at the town of Maribor. Between the Kara wanken and the Julian Alps lies the roughly parallel Upper Sava valley, of which a larger part falls within the state. Here the con siderable (25 m. by 6 m.) basin in which lies the town of Ljubljana may be said to mark the end of the mountain section.
Farther south the mountain belt differs greatly in character. The fold-lines take on a south-easterly direction, parallel to the coast-line, and three distinct zones can be recognized. The coastal ranges have been largely submerged beneath the sea to form the chain of islands and the characteristic peninsulas. Here, particu larly in the islands and occasionally in narrow strips on the main land, there are areas with a considerable depth of fertile soil, en joying a Mediterranean type of climate, despite the blasts of the bora, or cold northerly wind. Water occurs in the form of springs, often of great force, with, on the mainland, rivers which sometimes mingle their waters with the sea within a mile or two, or even a few hundred yards, of their sources in the limestones, but occasion ally reach a considerable length. This coastal belt, with its char acteristic products, form a distinct natural region, and is separated by steep limestone cliffs or hills from the barren karst behind.