Dalmatia is not well supplied with water. The lakes are for the most part temporary rain-pools, and the only streams of importance are the Kerka (ffitius) and the Cettina (Pilurus), which rise in the Dinara mountains. The former constitutes the boundary between Croatia and Dalmatia, and is interesting for its falls and the wildness of its scenery. The Narenta (Naro), which belongs mainly to Herzegovina, disembogues between the peninsula of Sabioncello and the mainland, and forms an extensive marsh.

The climate is warm and healthy, the mean temperature at Zara being 57° Fahr., at Lesina 62°, and at Ragusa 63°. The prevailing wind is the sirocco, or S.E.; but the terrible Bora, or N.E., may blow at any season of the year. The average annual rainfall is about 28 inches, but a dry and a wet year usually alternate. The greater proportion of the surface is devoted to pasture,—only 18 per cent, being under the plough, 5| per cent, in vineyards, and 22 per cent, in forest. Barley, wheat, maize, oats, rye, millet, beet-root, hemp, and potatoes are all grown, but in small quantities. Asses are largely used as beasts of burden; goats are strikingly numerous; and sheep are reared for the sake of their mutton, which is almost the only animal food freely consumed in the country. Asphalt, lignite, and bay-salt from Dernis and Sign are now the only mineral products of commercial importance; and there is no manufacturing industry except the distillation of liqueurs, oil-pressing, and tile-burning. The peasant still grinds his corn with his own hands, weaves his own cloth, and prepares his own furniture. The principal exports are olive-oil, wine, salt, and rosoglio.

Dalmatia is sparsely peopled, the neighbourhoods of Cattaro and of Ragusa being the areas of maximum density. About 89 per cent, of the inhabitants are the so-called Morlacks, or Dalmatians proper, who belong to the Servian race, and speak a Slavonic dialect usually distinguished as the Illyric; about 10| per cent, are of Italian origin; and the remainder consist mainly of Albanians and Jews. The pre 1 - vailing religion is Roman Catholicism, to which no fewer than 82 per cent, of the population are attached; and the Greek Church comprises almost all the rest. The Roman Catholic archbishop has his seat at Zara; and Spalato, Ragusa, Sebenico, Lesina, and Cattaro are bishoprics. Education is still in a backward state, but has made considerable advances since 1862. The political constitution is based on the law of the 26th February 1861. The diet is composed of 43 members, including the Roman Catholic archbishop, the Greek bishop of Zara, and representatives of the chief tax-payers, the towns, and the communes. To the imperial diet Dalmatia furnishes five delegates. Zara is the capital of the country; and Benkovacz, Cattaro, Curzola, Imoski, Knin, Lesina, Macarsca, Ragusa, Sebenico, Sign, and Spalato give names to the administrative districts. With the exception of Zara, Spalato, and Sebenico, most of the towns are very small, and the great proportion of the population is distributed in petty hamlets.

History.— The history of Dalmatia may be said to begin with the year 180 b.c., when the tribe from which it takes it name declared their independence of Gentius the king of Illyria, and established a republic with its capital at Delminium or Dalminium, which was probably situated in Dalen in the Herzegovina. In 156 b.c. the Dalmatians were for the first time attacked by the Romans, and compelled to pay tribute, but it was not till the reign of Augustus that their country was made a Roman province. A formidable revolt was suppressed by Tiberius in 9 a.d. Under the later empire Dalmatia was thoroughly Romanized, and it had the honour of giving to the world an emperor in the person of Diocletian, who retired, after resigning the purple, to Salona, the new Dalmatian capital, where he erected those buildings which still bear witness to his magnificence. (See Spalato). After the fall of the Western Empire, in which it was included, Dalmatia was successively in the hands of Odoacer, Theodoric, and Justinian; and in the 7th century it received the dominant element of its present population by the immigration of the Slavs, who had been invited by Heraclius. In the 9th century we find Croatian influence at its height, and Croatian princes recognized as kings of Dalmatia; but in the course of the 10th Venice extended her power over most of the towns, and about 1018 the doge took the title of duke of Dalmatia. During the 11th century the struggle went on between Croatia and Venice, till in 1091 the Hungarians took the place of the Croatians. Meanwhile the maritime cities Zara, Trau, Ragusa, &c., had each almost a separate history of its own, and, like the free cities of Northern Italy, attained no small prosperity through commerce and industry. As was natural from their position and affinities, they rather sided with Venice, and in fact were sometimes really under Venetian control; but the treatment they received from the great republic alienated their affection, and in 1357-8 they opened their gates to Louis of Hungary, who became for a time master of all Dalmatia. Venetian authority was, however, again restored through most of the country, and it was not till the treaty of Campo Formio, in 1797, that Dalmatia was finally incorporated with the Austrian dominions. Since that date, with the exception of the Napoleonic period from 1805-1814, the Austrian supremacy has never been questioned, though during a considerable time the feeling of the country towards its masters was extremely hostile, and in 1869 an insurrection had to be put down by force of arms.

The literature relating to Dalmatia is very extensive. See Lucius of Trau, De regno Dalmatiae et Croatia, 1668; Gio. Louvich, Dei Costumi del Morlaecki, 1776; Cattalinich, Memorie degli Avvenimenti successi in Dalmatia; A. Fortis, Travels in Dalmatia, 1778; Schmidl, Das Königreich Dalmatien, 1843; Cusani, Dalmatia, 1846; Wilkinson, Dalmatia and Montenegro, 2 vote. 1848; Paton, Highlands and Islands of the Adriatic, 1849; Kohl, Reisen in Istrien, Dalmatien, &c., 1850; Neigebauer, Die Südslaven, 1851; Petter, Compendio geografico della Dalmatia, and Dalmatien in seinen verschiedenen Vertiehungen dargestellt, Gotha, 1857; W. F. Wingfield, Tour in Dalmatia, 1859; Hecquard, “Géographie pol. et. phys. de la Dalmatia,” in Bulletin de la soc. de géogr. 1862; Noe, Dalmatien und seine Inselwelt, 1870; Maschek, Manuale del regno di Dalmatia per l'anno 1875; Schiff, Cultur-bilder aus Dalmatien, Vienna, 1875.