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diff --git a/40238-0.txt b/40238-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d92a30c --- /dev/null +++ b/40238-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8704 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40238 *** + +Transcriber's Note: + + The dagger symbol is denoted by the [+] sign + The asterism symbol is denoted by ** + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration] + + + + + A + THOUSAND MILES + IN THE + ROB ROY CANOE + + ON RIVERS AND LAKES OF + EUROPE. + + BY J. MACGREGOR, M.A., + + TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; + BARRISTER AT LAW: + + With Numerous Illustrations and a Map. + + _SIXTH THOUSAND._ + + LONDON: + SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON + MILTON HOUSE, LUDGATE-HILL. + 1866. + + (_The Right of Translation reserved._) + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The voyage about to be described was made last Autumn in a small Canoe, +with a double paddle and sails, which the writer managed alone. + +The route led sometimes over mountains and through forests and plains, +where the boat had to be carried or dragged. + +The waters navigated were as follows:-- + +The Rivers Thames, Sambre, Meuse, Rhine, Main, Danube, Reuss, Aar, Ill, +Moselle, Meurthe, Marne, and Seine. + +The Lakes Titisee, Constance, Unter See, Zurich, Zug, and Lucerne, +together with six canals in Belgium and France, and two expeditions in +the open sea of the British Channel. + + TEMPLE, LONDON, + _April 25, 1866_. + + + + + THE AUTHOR'S PROFITS FROM THE FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS, WERE + GIVEN TO THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION AND TO THE + SHIPWRECKED MARINERS' SOCIETY. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + Page + + RAPIDS OF THE REUSS (_Frontispiece_). -- + + SEA ROLLERS IN THE CHANNEL 19 + + SWIMMING HERD ON THE MEUSE 28 + + SINGERS' WAGGON ON THE DANUBE 49 + + A CROWD IN THE MORNING 65 + + HAYMAKERS AMAZED 80 + + NIGHT SURPRISE AT GEGGLINGEN 93 + + THE ROB ROY IN A BUSTLE 110 + + SAILING UPON LAKE ZUG 134 + + SHIRKING A WATERFALL 152 + + A CRITICAL MOMENT 168 + + ASTRIDE THE STERN 186 + + THE ROB ROY AND THE COW 213 + + POLITE TO THE LADIES 230 + + GROUP OF FRENCH FISHERS 246 + + PASSING A DANGEROUS BARRIER 263 + + A CHOKED CANAL 281 + + RIGGING ASHORE 290 + + ROUTE OF THE CANOE (_Map_) 291 + + CHART OF CURRENTS AND ROCKS 302 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. Page + + Canoe Travelling--Other Modes--The Rob + Roy--Hints--Tourists--The Rivers--The Dress--I and We 1 + + + CHAPTER II. + + The Start--The Nore--Porpoises--A Gale--The Channel--Ostend + Canal--River Meuse--Earl of Aberdeen--Holland--The + Rhine--The Premier's Son--River Main--Heron + Stalking--The Prince of Wales 12 + + + CHAPTER III. + + Hollenthal Pass--Ladies--Black Forest--Night Music--Beds--Lake + Titisee--Pontius Pilate--Storm--Starers--Banket--Four + in hand--Source of the Danube 38 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + River Donau--Singers--Shady nooks--Geisingen--Mill + Weirs--Rapids--Morning Crowd--Donkey's + Stable--Islands--Monks--Spiders--Concert--Fish--A + race 55 + + + CHAPTER V. + + Sigmaringen--Treacherous trees--Congress of herons--Flying + Dutchman--Tub and shovel--Bottle race--Snags--Bridge + Perils--Ya Vol--Ferry Rope--Benighted--Ten eggs 75 + + + CHAPTER VI. + + Day-dream--River Iller--Ulm--A stiff king--Lake Constance--Seeing + in the dark--Switzerland--Coloured + Canvas--Sign talk--Synagogue--Amelia--Gibberish 96 + + + CHAPTER VII. + + Fog--Fancy pictures--Boy soldiers--Boat's billet--Eating--Lake + Zurich--Crinoline--Hot walk--Staring--Lake + Zug--Swiss shots--Fishing Britons--Talk-book 118 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + Sailing on Lucerne--Seeburg--River scenes--Night and + snow--The Reuss--A dear dinner--Seeing a rope--Passing + a fall--Sullen roar--Bremgarten rapids 142 + + + CHAPTER IX. + + Hunger--Music at the mill--Sentiment and chops--River + Limmat--Fixed on a fall--River Aar--Rhine again--Douaniers--Falls + of Lauffenburg--The cow cart 159 + + + CHAPTER X. + + Field of Foam--Precipice--Puzzled--Philosophy--Rheinfelden + Rapids--Dazzled--Lower Rapids--Astride--Fate + of the Four-oar--Very Salt--Ladies--Whirlpool--Funny + English--Insulting a baby--Bride 177 + + + CHAPTER XI. + + Private concert--Thunderer--La Hardt Forest--Mulhouse + Canal--River Ill--Reading Stories--Madame Nico--Night + Noises--Pets--Ducking--The Vosges mountains--Admirers--Boat + on wheels--New wine 196 + + + CHAPTER XII. + + Bonfire--My wife--Matthews--Tunnel + picture--Imposture--Fancy--Moselle--Cocher--Saturday + Review Tracts--Gymnastics--The + paddle--A spell--Overhead--Feminine + forum--Public breakfast 216 + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + River Moselle--The Tramp--Halcyon--Painted woman--Beating + to quarters--Boat in a hedge--River Meurthe--Moving + House--Tears of a mother--Five francs 234 + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + Ladies in muslin--Chalons Camp--Officers shouting--Volunteers' + umbrella--Reims--Leaks--Madame + Clicquot--Heavy blow--The Elephant--First Cloud 255 + + + CHAPTER XV. + + Meaux on the Marne--Hammering--Popish forms--Wise + dogs--Blocked in a Tunnel--A dry voyage--Arbour + and Garret--Odd fellows--Dream on the Seine--Almost + over--No admittance--Charing-cross 276 + + + APPENDIX. + + Hints for Canoists--The Rob Roy's Stores--Chart of rocks + and currents--The Kent--Danger--Exercise--Sun--Walking + machine--Odds and ends--Future voyages 291 + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + Canoe Travelling--Other Modes--The Rob + Roy--Hints--Tourists--The Rivers--The Dress--I and We--The + Election. + + +The object of this book is to describe a new mode of travelling on the +Continent, by which new people and things are met with, while healthy +exercise is enjoyed, and an interest ever varied with excitement keeps +fully alert the energies of the mind. + +Some years ago the Water Lily was rowed by four men on the Rhine and on +the Danube, and its "log" delighted all readers. Afterwards, the boat +Water Witch laboured up French rivers, and through a hundred tedious +locks on the Bâle canal. But these and other voyages of three or five +men in an open boat were necessarily very limited. In the wildest parts +of the best rivers the channel is too narrow for oars, or, if wide, it +is too shallow for a row-boat; and the tortuous passages, the rocks and +banks, the weeds and snags, the milldams, barriers, fallen trees, +rapids, whirlpools, and waterfalls that constantly occur on a river +winding among hills, make those very parts where the scenery is wildest +and best to be quite unapproachable in an open boat, for it would be +swamped by the sharp waves, or upset over the sunken rocks which it is +utterly impossible for a steersman to see. + +But these very things, which are obstacles or dangers to the "pair oar," +become interesting features to the voyager in a covered canoe. For now, +as he sits in his little bark, he looks forward, and not backward. He +sees all his course, and the scenery besides. With one powerful sweep of +his paddle he can instantly turn the canoe, when only a foot distant +from fatal destruction. He can steer within an inch in a narrow place, +or pass through reeds and weeds, branches and grass; can hoist and lower +his sail without changing his seat; can shove with his paddle when +aground, or jump out in good time to prevent a decided smash. He can +wade and haul the light craft over shallows, or drag it on dry ground, +through fields and hedges, over dykes, barriers, and walls; can carry it +by hand up ladders and stairs, and can transport his boat over high +mountains and broad plains in a cart drawn by a horse, a bullock, or a +cow. + +Nay, more than this, the covered canoe is far stronger than an open +boat, and may be fearlessly dropped headforemost into a deep pool, a +lock, or a millrace, and yet, when the breakers are high, in the open +sea or in fresh water rapids, they can only wash over the covered deck, +while it is always dry within. + +Again, the canoe is safer than a rowing-boat, because you sit so low in +it, and never require to shift your place or lose hold of the paddle; +while for comfort during long hours, for days and weeks of hard work, it +is evidently the best, because you lean all the time against a +backboard, and the moment you rest the paddle on your lap you are as +much at ease as in an arm-chair; so that, while drifting along with the +current or the wind, you can gaze around, and eat or read or chat with +the starers on the bank, and yet, in a moment of sudden danger, the +hands are at once on the faithful paddle ready for action. + +Finally, you can lie at full length in the canoe, with the sail as an +awning for the sun, or a shelter for rain, and you can sleep in it thus +at night, under cover, with an opening for air to leeward, and at least +as much room for turning in your bed as sufficed for the great Duke of +Wellington; or, if you are tired of the water for a time, you can leave +your boat at an inn--it will not be "eating its head off," like a horse; +or you can send it home or sell it, and take to the road yourself, or +sink into the dull old cushions of the "Première Classe," and dream you +are seeing the world. + +With such advantages, then, and with good weather and good health, the +canoe voyage about to be described was truly delightful, and I never +enjoyed so much continuous pleasure in any other tour. + +But, before this deliberate assertion has weight with intending +"canoists," it may well be asked from one who thus praises the paddle, +"Has he travelled in other ways, so as to know their several pleasures? +Has he climbed glaciers and volcanoes, dived into caves and catacombs, +trotted in the Norway carriole, ambled on an Arab, and galloped on the +Russian steppes? Does he know the charms of a Nile boat, or a Trinity +Eight, or a sail in the Ægean, or a mule in Spain? Has he swung upon a +camel, or glided in a sleigh, or trundled in a Rantoone?" + +Yes, he has most thoroughly enjoyed these and other modes of locomotion +in the four corners of the world; but the pleasure in the canoe was far +better than all. + +The weather last summer was, indeed, exceptionally good; but then rain +would have diminished some of the difficulties, though it might have +been a bore to paddle ten hours in a downpour. Two inches more of water +in the rivers would have saved many a grounding and wading, while, at +worst, the rain could have wetted only the upper man, which a cape can +cover; so, even in bad weather, give me the canoe. + +Messrs. Searle and Sons, of Lambeth, soon built for me the very boat I +wanted. + +The Rob Roy is built of oak, and covered fore and aft with cedar. She is +made just short enough to go into the German railway waggons; that is to +say, fifteen feet in length, twenty-eight inches broad, nine inches +deep, weighs eighty pounds, and draws three inches of water, with an +inch of keel. A paddle seven feet long, with a blade at each end, and a +lug sail and jib, are the means of propulsion; and a pretty blue silk +Union Jack is the only ornament. + +The elliptic hole in which I sit is fifty-four inches long and twenty +broad, and has a macintosh cover fastened round the combing and to a +button on my breast; while between my knees is my baggage for three +months, in a black bag one foot square and five inches deep. + +But, having got this little boat, the difficulty was to find where she +could go to, or what rivers were at once feasible to paddle on, and +pretty to see. + +Inquiries in London as to this had no result. Even the Paris Boat Club +knew nothing of French rivers. The best German and Austrian maps were +frequently wrong. They made villages on the banks which I found were a +mile away in a wood, and so were useless to one who had made up his mind +(a good resolve) never to leave his boat. + +It was soon, therefore, evident that, after quitting the Rhine, this was +to be a voyage of discovery. And as I would most gladly have accepted +any hints on the matter myself, so I venture to hope that this narrative +will lessen the trouble, while it stimulates the desire of the numerous +travellers who will spend their vacation in a canoe.[I.] + + [I.] See Appendix. Special hints for those who intend to "canoe + it" will usually be given in the footnotes, or in the Appendix. + +Not that I shall attempt to make a "handbook" to any of the streams. The +man who has a spark of enterprise would turn from a river of which every +reach was mapped and its channels all lettered. Fancy the free +traveller, equipped for a delicious summer of savage life, quietly +submitting to be cramped and tutored by a "Chart of the Upper Mosel," +in the style of the following extracts copied literally from two +Guide-books;-- + +(1) "Turn to the r. (right), cross the brook, and ascend by a broad and +steep forest track (in 40 min.) to the hamlet of Albersbach, situate in +the midst of verdant meadows. In five min. more a cross is reached, +where the path to the l. must be taken; in 10 min. to the r., in the +hollow, to the saw mill; in 10 min. more through the gate to the r.; in +3 min. the least trodden path to the l. leading to the Gaschpels Hof; +after 1/4 hr. the stony track into the wood must be ascended," &c., +&c.--_From B----'s Rhine, p. 94_. + +(2) "_To the ridge of the Riffelberg_ 8,000 ft. _Hotel_ on top very +good. 2 hrs. up. Guide 4 fr. Horse and man 10 fr. Path past the Church: +then l. over fields; then up through a wood 1 hr. Past châlets: then r. +across a stream."-- _----'s Handbook_. + +This sort of guide-book is not to be ridiculed. It is useful for some +travellers as a ruled copy-book is of use to some writers. For first +tours it may be needful and pleasant to have all made easy, to be +carried in steamers or railways like a parcel, to stop at hotels +Anglified by the crowd of English guests, and to ride, walk, or drive +among people who know already just what you will want to eat, and see, +and do. + +Year after year it is enough of excitement to some tourists to be +shifted in squads from town to town, according to the routine of an +excursion ticket. Those who are a little more advanced will venture to +devise a tour from the mazy pages of Bradshaw, and with portmanteau and +bag, and hat-box and sticks, they find more than enough of judgment and +tact is needed when they arrive in a night train, and must fix on an +omnibus in a strange town. Safe at last in the bedroom of the hotel, +they cannot but exclaim with satisfaction "Well, here we are all right +at last!" + +But after mountains and caves, churches and galleries, ruins and +battle-fields have been pretty well seen, and after tact and fortitude +have been educated by experience, the tourist is ready for new lines of +travel which might have given him at first more anxiety than pleasure, +and these he will find in deeper searches among the natural scenery and +national character of the very countries he has only skimmed before. + +The rivers and streams on the Continent are scarcely known to the +English tourist, and the beauty and life upon them no one has well seen. + +In his guide-book route, indeed, from town to town, the tourist has +crossed this and that stream--has admired a few yards of the water, and +has then left it for ever. He is carried again on a noble river by night +in a steamboat, or is whisked along its banks in a railway, and, between +two tunnels, gets a moment's glimpse at the lovely water, and lo! it is +gone. + +But a mine of rich beauty remains there to be explored, and fresh gems +of life and character are waiting there to be gathered. These are not +mapped and labelled and ticketed in any handbook yet; and far better so, +for the enjoyment of such treasures is enhanced to the best traveller by +the energy and pluck required to get at them. + +On this new world of waters we are to launch the boat, the man, and his +baggage, for we must describe all three, + + "Arma virumque canoe." + +So what sort of dress did he wear? + +The clothes I took for this tour consisted of a complete suit of grey +flannel for use in the boat, and another suit of light but ordinary +dress for shore work and Sundays. + +The "Norfolk jacket" is a loose frock-coat, like a blouse, with +shoulder-straps, and belted at the waist, and garnished by six pockets. +With this excellent new-fashioned coat, a something in each of its +pockets, and a Cambridge straw hat, canvas wading shoes, blue +spectacles, a waterproof overcoat, and my spare jib for a sun shawl, +there was sure to be a full day's enjoyment in defiance of rain or sun, +deeps or shallows, hunger or _ennui_. + +Four hours' work to begin, and then three of rest or floating, reading +or sailing, and again, a three hours' heavy pull, and then with a swim +in the river or a bath at the inn, a change of garments and a pleasant +walk, all was made quite fresh again for a lively evening, a hearty +dinner, talk, books, pictures, letters, and bed. + +Now I foresee that in the description of this tour I shall have to write +"I," and the word "me" must be used by me very often indeed; but having +the misfortune to be neither an Emperor, an editor, nor a married man, +who can speak in the plural, I cannot help it if I am put down as a +bachelor _egotist_, reserving the "we" for myself and my boat. + +The manner of working the double-bladed paddle was easily learned by a +few days' practice on the Thames, and so excellent is the exercise for +the muscles of the limbs and body that I have continued it at intervals, +even during the winter, when a pretty sharp "look out" must be kept to +pilot safely among the red and yellow lights of steamers, barges, +embankments, and bridges in an evening's voyage from Putney to +Westminster. + +All being ready and the weather very hot at the end of July, when the +country had caught the election fever, and M.P.'s had run off to +scramble for seats, and the lawyers had run after them to thicken the +bustle, and the last bullet at Wimbledon had come "thud" on the target, +it was time for the Rob Roy to start. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE START. + + The Thames--The Cornwall--Porpoises--A Gale--The + Channel--Ostend Canal--The Meuse--Earl of + Aberdeen--Holland--The Rhine--The Premier's Son--The River + Main--Heron stalking--The Prince of Wales. + + +The Rob Roy bounded away joyously on the top of the tide through +Westminster Bridge, and swiftly shooting the narrow piles at +Blackfriars, danced along the waves of the Pool, which looked all golden +in the morning sun, but were in fact of veritable pea-soup hue. + +A fine breeze at Greenwich enabled me to set the new white sail, and we +skimmed along with a cheery hissing sound. At such times the river is a +lively scene with steamers and sea-bound ships, bluff little tugs, and +big looming barges. I had many a chat with the passing sailors, for it +was well to begin this at once, seeing that every day afterwards I was +to have talk with the river folk in English, French, Dutch, German, or +else some hotchpotch patois. + +The bargee is not a bad fellow if you begin with good humour, but he +will not stand banter. Often they began the colloquy with, "Holloah you +two!" or "Any room inside?" or "Got your life insured, Gov'nor?" but I +smiled and nodded to every one, and every one on every river and lake +was friendly to me. + +Gravesend was to be the port for the night, but Purfleet looked so +pretty that I took a tack or two to reconnoitre, and resolved to stop at +the very nice hotel on the river, which I beg to recommend. + +While lolling about in my boat at anchor in the hot sun a fly stung my +hand; and although it was not remarked at once, the arm speedily +swelled, and I had to poultice the hand at night and to go to church +next day with a sling, which appendage excited a great deal of comment +in the village Sunday-school. This little incident is mentioned because +it was the only occasion on which any insect troubled me on the voyage, +though several croakers had predicted that in rivers and marshes there +would be hundreds of wasps, venomous flies, and gnats, not to mention +other residents within doors. + +Just as I entered the door of the quiet little church, an only gentleman +about to go in fell down dead in the path. It was impossible not to be +much impressed with this sudden death as a solemn warning, especially to +one in vigorous health. + +The "Cornwall" Reformatory School-ship is moored at Purfleet. Some of +the boys came ashore for a walk, neatly clad and very well behaved. +Captain Burton, who commands this interesting vessel, received me on +board very kindly, and the evening service between decks was a sight to +remember for ever. + +About 100 boys sat in rows along the old frigate's main-deck, with the +open ports looking on the river, now reddened by a setting sun, and the +cool air pleasantly fanning us. The lads chanted the Psalms to the music +of a harmonium, played with excellent feeling and good taste, and the +Captain read a suitable portion from some selected book, and then prayer +was offered; and all this was by and for poor vagrant boys, whose claim +on society is great indeed if measured by the wrong it has done them in +neglect if not in precept, nay, even in example. + +Next morning the canoe was lowered down a ladder from the hay-loft, where +it had been kept (it had to go up into many far more strange places in +subsequent days), and the Cornwall boys bid me a pleasant voyage--a wish +most fully realized indeed. + +After taking in supplies at Gravesend, I shoved off into the tide, and +lit a cigar, and now I felt I had fairly started. Then there began a +strange feeling of _freedom_ and _novelty_ which lasted to the end of +the tour. + +Something like it is felt when you first march off with a knapsack ready +to walk anywhere, or when you start alone in a sailing-boat for a long +cruise. + +But then in walking you are bounded by every sea and river, and in a +common sailing-boat you are bounded by every shallow and shore; whereas, +I was in a canoe, which could be paddled or sailed, hauled, or carried +over land or water to Rome, if I liked, or to Hong-Kong. + +The wind was fair again, and up went my sail. The reaches got wider and +the water more salt, but I knew every part of the course, for I had once +spent a fortnight about the mouth of the Thames in my pretty little +sailing-boat, the Kent, alone, with only a dog, a chart, a compass, and +a bachelor's kettle. + +The new steamer Alexandra, which plies from London daily, passed me +here, its high-terraced American decks covered with people, and the +crowd gave a fine loud cheer to the Rob Roy, for the newspapers had +mentioned its departure. Presently the land seemed to fade away at each +side in pale distance, and the water was more sea than river, till near +the Nore we entered a great shoal of porpoises. Often as I have seen +these harmless and agile playfellows I had never been so close to them +before, and in a boat so small as to be almost disregarded by them, wily +though they be. I allowed the canoe to rock on the waves, and the +porpoises frequently came near enough to be struck by my paddle, but I +did not wage war, for a flap of a tail would have soon turned me upside +down. + +After a pleasant sail to Southend and along the beach, the wind changed, +and a storm of heavy rain had to be met in its teeth by taking to the +paddle, until near Shoeburyness, where I meant to stop a day or two in +the camp of the National Artillery Association, which was assembled here +for its first Prize shooting. + +The Royal Artillery received us Volunteers on this occasion with the +greatest kindness, and as they had appropriated quarters of officers +absent on leave for the use of members of the Council of the +Association, I was soon comfortably ensconced. The camp, however, in a +wet field was moist enough; but the fine tall fellows who had come from +Yorkshire, Somerset, or Aberdeen to handle the 68-pounders, trudged +about in the mud with good humour and thick boots, and sang round the +camp-fire in a drizzle of rain, and then pounded away at the targets +next day, for these were volunteers of the right sort. + +As the wind had then risen to a gale it seemed a good opportunity for a +thorough trial of the canoe in rough water, so I paddled her to a corner +where she would be least injured by being thrown ashore after an upset, +and where she would be safe while I might run to change clothes after a +swim. + +The buoyancy of the boat astonished me, and her stability was in every +way satisfactory. In the midst of the waves I even managed to rig up the +mast and sail, and as I had no baggage on board and so did not mind +being perfectly wet through in the experiments, there was nothing left +untried, and the confidence then gained for after times was invaluable. + +Early next morning I started directly in the teeth of the wind, and +paddled against a very heavy sea to Southend, where a nice warm bath was +enjoyed while my clothes were getting dried, and then the Rob Roy had +its first railway journey in one of the little cars on the Southend pier +to the steamboat. + +It was amusing to see how much interest and curiosity the canoe excited +even on the Thames, where all kinds of new and old and wonderful boats +may be seen. The reasons for this I never exactly made out. Some +wondered to see so small a boat at sea, others had never seen a canoe +before, the manner of rowing was new to most, and the sail made many +smile. The graceful shape of the boat pleased others, the cedar covering +and the jaunty flag, and a good many stared at the captain's uniform, +and they stared more after they had asked, "Where are you going to?" and +were often told, "I really do not know." + +From Sheerness to Dover was the route, and on the branch line train the +Rob Roy had to be carried on the coals in the engine-tender, with +torrents of rain and plenty of hot sparks driven into her by the gale; +but after some delay at a junction the canoe was formally introduced to +a baggage-waggon and ticketed like a portmanteau, the first of a series +of transits in this way. + +The London Chatham and Dover Railway Company took this new kind of "box" +as passengers' luggage, so I had nothing to pay, and the steamer to +Ostend was equally large-hearted, so I say, "Canoemen, choose this +channel." + +But before crossing to Belgium I had a day at Dover, where I bought some +stuff and had a jib made for the boat by deft and fair fingers, had +paddled the Rob Roy on the green waves which toss about off the +pier-head most delectably. The same performance was repeated on the top +of the swell, tumbling and breaking on the "digue"[II.] at Ostend, where, +even with little wind, the rollers ran high on a strong ebb tide. Fat +bathers wallowed in the shallows, and fair ones, dressed most bizarre, +were swimming like ducks. All of these, and the babies squalling +hysterically at each dip, were duly admired; and then I had a quieter +run under sail on their wide and straight canal. + +[Illustration: Rollers off the Digue.] + + [II.] At Ostend I found an English gentleman preparing for a + voyage on the Danube, for which he was to build a "centre board" boat. + Although no doubt a sailing boat could reach the Danube by the Bamberg + canal, yet, after four tours on that river from its source as far as + Pest, I am convinced that to trust to sailing upon it would entail much + tedious delay, useless trouble, and constant anxiety. If the wind is + ahead you have all the labour of tacking, and are frequently in slack + water near the banks, and often in channels where the only course would + be dead to windward. If the wind is aft the danger of "running" is + extreme where you have to "broach to" and stop suddenly near a shallow + or a barrier. With a strong side wind, indeed, you can sail safely, but + this must come from north or south, and the high banks vastly reduce its + effect. + +With just a little persuasion the railway people consented to put the +canoe in the baggage-van, and to charge a franc or two for "extra +luggage" to Brussels. Here she was carried on a cart through the town to +another station, and in the evening we were at Namur, where the Rob Roy +was housed for the night in the landlord's private parlour, resting +gracefully upon two chairs. + +Two porters carried her through the streets next morning, and I took a +paddle on the Sambre, but very soon turned down stream and smoothly +glided to the Meuse. + +Glancing water, brilliant sun, a light boat, and a light heart, all your +baggage on board, and on a fast current,--who would exchange this for +any diligence or railway, or steamboat, or horse? A pleasant stream was +enough to satisfy at this early period of the voyage, for the excitement +of rocks and rapids had not yet become a charm. + +It is good policy, too, that a quiet, easy, respectable sort of river +like the Meuse should be taken in the earlier stage of a water tour, +when there is novelty enough in being on a river at all. The river-banks +one would call tame if seen from shore are altogether new when you open +up the vista from the middle of the stream. The picture that is rolled +sideways to the common traveller now pours out from before you, ever +enlarging from a centre, and in the gentle sway of the stream the +landscape seems to swell on this side and on that with new things ever +advancing to meet you in succession. + +How careful I was at the first shallow! getting out and wading as I +lowered the boat. A month afterwards I would dash over them with a shove +here and a stroke there in answer to a hoarse croak of the stones at the +bottom grinding against my keel. + +And the first barrier--how anxious it made me, to think by what means +shall I get over. A man appeared just in time (N.B.--They _always_ do), +and twopence made him happy for his share of carrying the boat round by +land, and I jumped in again as before. + +Sailing was easy, too, in a fine wide river, strong and deep, and with a +favouring breeze, and when the little steamer passed I drew alongside +and got my penny roll and penny glass of beer, while the wondering +passengers (the first of many amazed foreigners) smiled, chattered, and +then looked grave--for was it not indecorous to laugh at an Englishman +evidently mad, poor fellow? + +The voyage was chequered by innumerable little events, all perfectly +different from those one meets on shore, and when I came to the forts at +Huy and knew the first day's work was done, the persuasion was complete +that quite a new order of sensations had been set going. + +Next morning I found the boat safe in the coach-house and the sails +still drying on the harness-pegs, where we had left them, but the ostler +and all his folks were nowhere to be seen. Everybody had gone to join +the long funeral procession of a great musician, who lived fifty years +at Huy, though we never heard of him before, or of Huy either; yet you +see it is in our Map at page 291. + +The pleasure of meandering with a new river is very peculiar and +fascinating. Each few yards brings a novelty, or starts an excitement. A +crane jumps up here, a duck flutters there, splash leaps a gleaming +trout by your side, the rushing sound of rocks warns you round that +corner, or anon you come suddenly upon a millrace. All these, in +addition to the scenery and the people and the weather, and the +determination that you _must_ get on, over, through, or under every +difficulty, and cannot leave your boat in a desolate wold, and ought to +arrive at a house before dark, and that your luncheon bag is long since +empty; all these, I say, keep the mind awake, which would perchance dose +away for 100 miles in a first-class carriage. + +It is, as in the voyage of life, that our cares and hardships are our +very Mentors of living. Our minds would only vegetate if all life were +like a straight canal, and we in a boat being towed along it. The +afflictions that agitate the soul are as its shallows, rocks, and +whirlpools, and the bark that has not been tossed on billows knows not +half the sweetness of the harbour of rest. + +The river soon got fast and lively, and hour after hour of vigorous work +prepared me well for breakfast. Trees seemed to spring up in front and +grow tall, but it was only because I came rapidly towards them. Pleasant +villages floated as it were to meet me, gently moving. All life got to +be a smooth and gliding thing, of dreamy pictures and far-off sounds, +without fuss and without dust or anything sudden or loud, till at +length the bustle and hammers of Liege neared the Rob Roy--for it was +always the objects and not myself that seemed to move. Here I saw a fast +steamer, the Seraing, propelled by water forced from its sides, and as +my boat hopped and bobbed in the steamer's waves we entered a dock +together, and the canoe was soon hoisted into a garden for the night. + +Gun-barrels are the rage in Liege. Everybody there makes or carries or +sells gun-barrels. Even women walk about with twenty stocked rifles on +their backs, and each rifle, remember, weighs 10 lbs. They sell plenty +of fruit in the market, and there are churches well worth a visit here, +but gun-barrels, after all, are the prevailing idea of the place. + +However, it is not my purpose to describe the towns seen on this tour. I +had seen Liege well, years before, and indeed almost every town +mentioned in these pages. The charm then of the voyage was not in going +to strange lands, but in seeing old places in a new way. + +Here at length the Earl of Aberdeen met me, according to our plans +arranged long before. He had got a canoe built for the trip, but a foot +longer and two inches narrower than the Rob Roy, and, moreover, made of +fir instead of strong oak. It was sent from London to Liege, and the +"combing" round the edge of the deck was broken in the journey, so we +spent some hours at a cabinet-maker's, where it was neatly mended. + +Launching our boats unobserved on the river, we soon left Liege in the +distance and braved the hot sun. + +The pleasant companionship of two travellers, each quite free in his own +boat, was very enjoyable. Sometimes we sailed, then paddled a mile or +two, or joined to help the boats over a weir, or towed them along while +we walked on the bank for a change.[III.] + + [III.] Frequent trials afterwards convinced me that towing is only + useful if you feel very cramped from sitting. And this constraint is + felt less and less as you get accustomed to sit ten or twelve hours at a + time. Experience enables you to make the seat perfectly comfortable, and + on the better rivers you have so frequently to get out that any + additional change is quite needless. Towing is slower progress than + paddling, even when your arms are tired, though my canoe was so light to + tow that for miles I have drawn it by my little finger on a canal. + +Each of us took whichever side of the river pleased him best, and we +talked across long acres of water between, to the evident surprise of +sedate people on the banks, who often could see only one of the strange +elocutionists, the other being hidden by bushes or tall sedge. When +talking thus aloud had amplified into somewhat uproarious singing, the +chorus was far more energetic than harmonious, but then the Briton is at +once the most timid and shy of mortal travellers, and the most _outré_ +and singular when he chooses to be free. + +The midday beams on a river in August are sure to conquer your fresh +energies at last, and so we had to pull up at a village for bread and +wine. + +The moment I got into my boat again a shrill whining cry in the river +attracted my attention, and it came from a poor little boy, who had +somehow fallen into the water, and was now making his last faint efforts +to cling to a great barge in the stream. Naturally I rushed over to save +him, and my boat went so fast and so straight that its sharp prow caught +the hapless urchin in the rear, and with such a pointed reminder too +that he screamed and struggled and thus got safely on the barge, which +was beyond his reach, until thus roughly but fortunately aided. + +On most of the Belgian, German, and French rivers there are excellent +floating baths, an obvious convenience which I do not recollect +observing on a single river in Britain, though in summer we have quite +as many bathers as there are abroad. + +The floating baths consist of a wooden framework, say 100 feet long, +moored in the stream, and through which the water runs freely, while a +set of strong bars and chains and iron network forms a false bottom, +shallow at one end and deeper at the other, so that the bather cannot be +carried away by the current. + +Round the sides there are bathing boxes and steps, ladders, and spring +boards for the various degree of aquatic proficiency. + +The youths and even the little boys on the Rhine are very good swimmers, +and many of them dive well. Sometimes there is a ladies' bath of similar +construction, from which a good deal of very lively noise may be heard +when the fair bathers are in a talkative mood. + +The soldiers at military stations near the rivers are marched down +regularly to bathe, and one day we found a large number of young +recruits assembled for their general dip. + +While some were in the water others were firing at the targets for ball +practice. There were three targets, each made of cardboard sheets, +fastened upon wooden uprights. A marker safely protected in a ball-proof +_mantelet_ was placed so close to these targets that he could see all +three at once. One man of the firing party opposite each target having +fired, his bullet passed through the pasteboard and left a clear round +hole in it, while the ball itself was buried in the earth behind, and +so could be recovered again, instead of being dashed into fragments as +on our iron targets, and then spattered about on all sides, to the great +danger of the marker and everybody else. + +When three men had thus fired, signals were made by drum, flag, and +bugle, and the firing ceased. The marker then came out and pointed to +the bullet-mark on each target, and having patched up the holes he +returned within his mantelet, and the firing was resumed. This very safe +and simple method of ball practice is much better than that used in our +military shooting. + +Once as we rounded a point there was a large herd of cattle swimming +across the stream in close column, and I went right into the middle of +them to observe how they would welcome a stranger. In the Nile you see +the black oxen swim over the stream night and morning, reminding you of +Pharaoh's dream about the "kine" coming up out of the river, a notion +that used to puzzle in boyhood days, but which is by no means +incongruous when thus explained. The Bible is a book that bears full +light to be cast upon it, for truth looks more true under more light. + +We had been delayed this morning in our start, and so the evening +fell sombre ere we came near the resting-place. This was the town of +Maastricht, in Holland, and it is stated to be one of the most strongly +fortified places in Europe; that is, of the old fashion, with straight +high walls quite impervious to the Armstrong and Whitworth guns--of a +century gone by. + +[Illustration: CATTLE SWIMMING THE MEUSE. Page 28.] + +But all we knew as we came near it at night was, that the stream was +good and strong, and that no lights appeared. Emerging from trees we +were right in the middle of the town, but where were the houses? had +they no windows, no lamps, not even a candle? + +Two great high walls bounded the river, but not a gate or port could we +find, though one of us carefully scanned the right and the other +cautiously scraped along the left of this very strange place. + +It appears that the commerce and boats all turn into a canal above the +old tumble-down fortress, and so the blank brick sides bounded us thus +inhospitably. Soon we came to a bridge, looming overhead in the +blackness, and our arrival there was greeted by a shower of stones from +some Dutch lads upon it, pattering pitilessly upon the delicate +cedar-covered canoes. + +Turning up stream, and after a closer scrutiny, we found a place where +we could cling to the wall, which here sloped a little with debris, and +now there was nothing for it but to haul the boats up bodily over the +impregnable fortification, and thus carry them into the sleepy town. No +wonder the _octroi_ guard stared as his lamplight fell on two gaunt men +in grey, carrying what seemed to him a pair of long coffins, but he was +a sensible though surprised individual, and he guided us well, stamping +through the dark deserted streets to an hotel. + +Though the canoes in a cart made a decided impression at the +railway-station next day, and arguments logically proved that the boats +must go as baggage, the porters were dense to conviction, and obdurate +to persuasion, until all at once a sudden change took place; they rushed +at us, caught up the two neglected "batteaux," ran with them to the +luggage-van, pushed them in, and banged the door, piped the whistle, and +as the train went off--"Do you know why they have yielded so suddenly?" +said a Dutchman, who could speak English. "Not at all," said we. +"Because I told them one of you was the son of the Prime Minister, and +the other Lord Russell's son." + +But a change of railway had to be made at Aix-la-Chapelle, and after a +hard struggle we had nearly surrendered the boats to the "merchandise +train," to limp along the line at night and to arrive "perhaps +to-morrow." Indeed the Superintendent of that department seemed to +clutch the boats as his prize, but as he gloried a little too loudly, +the "Chef" of the passengers' baggage came, listened, and with calm mien +ordered for us a special covered truck, and on arriving at Cologne there +was "nothing to pay."[IV.] + + [IV.] This is an exceptional case, and I wrote from England to + thank the officer. It would be unreasonable again to expect any baggage + to be thus favoured. A canoe is at best a clumsy inconvenience in the + luggage-van, and no one can wonder that it is objected to. In France the + railway _fourgons_ are shorter than in other countries, and the + officials there insisted on treating my canoe as merchandise. The + instances given above show what occurred in Belgium and Holland. In + Germany little difficulty was made about the boat as luggage. In + Switzerland there was no objection raised, for was not I an English + traveller? As for the English railway guards, they have the good sense + to see that a long light article like a canoe can be readily carried on + the top of a passenger carriage. Probably some distinct rules will be + instituted by the railways in each country, when they are found to be + liable to a nautical incursion, but after all one can very well arrange + to walk or see sights now and then, while the boat travels slower by a + goods-train. + +To be quiet we went to the Belle Vue, at Deutz, which is opposite +Cologne, but a great Singing Society had its gala there, and sang and +drank prodigiously. Next day (Sunday too) this same quiet Deutz had a +"Schutzen Fest," where the man who had hit the target best was dragged +about in an open carriage with his wife, both wearing brass crowns, and +bowing royally to a screaming crowd, while blue lights glared and +rockets shot up in the serene darkness. + +At Cologne, while Lord A. went to take our tickets at the steamer, the +boats were put in a handcart, which I shoved from behind as a man pulled +it in front. In our way to the river I was assailed by a poor vagrant +sort of fellow, who insisted on being employed as a porter, and being +enraged at a refusal he actually took up a large stone and ran after the +cart in a threatening passion. I could not take my hands from the boats, +though in fear that his missile would smash them if he threw it, but I +kicked up my legs behind as we trotted along. One of the sentries saw +the man's conduct, and soon a policeman brought him to me as a prisoner, +but as he trembled now with fear more than before with anger, I declined +to make any charge, though the police pressed this course, saying, +"Travellers are sacred here." This incident is mentioned because it was +the sole occasion when any discourtesy happened to me during this tour. + +We took the canoes by steamer to a wide part of the Rhine at Bingen. +Here the scenery is good, and we spent an active day on the river, +sailing in a splendid breeze, landing on islands, scudding about in +steamers' waves, and, in fact, enjoying a combination of yacht voyage, +pic-nic, and boat race. + +This was a fine long day of pleasure, though in one of the sudden +squalls my canoe happened to ground on a bank just at the most critical +time, and the bamboo mast broke short. The uncouth and ridiculous +appearance of a sail falling overboard is like that of an umbrella +turned inside out in a gust of wind. But I got another stronger mast, +and made the broken one into a boom. + +Lord Aberdeen went by train to inspect the river Nahe, but reported +unfavourably; and I paddled up from its mouth, but the water was very +low. + +Few arguments were needed to stop me from going against stream; for I +have a profound respect for the universal principle of gravitation, and +quite allow that in rowing it is well to have it with you by always +going down stream, and so the good rule was to make steam, horse, or man +take the canoe against the current, and to let gravity help the boat to +carry me down. + +Time pressed for my fellow-paddler to return to England, so we went on +to Mayence, and thence by rail to Asschaffenburg on the Main. The canoes +again travelled in grand state, having a truck to themselves; but +instead of the stately philosopher superintendent of Aix-la-Chapelle, +who managed this gratuitously, we had a fussy little person to deal +with, and to pay accordingly,--the only case of decided cheating I can +recollect during the voyage. + +A fellow-passenger in the railway was deeply interested about our tour; +and we had spoken of its various details for some time to him before we +found that he supposed we were travelling with "two small cannons," +mistaking the word "canôts" for "canons." He had even asked about their +length and weight, and had heard with perfect placidity that our +"canons" were fifteen feet long, and weighed eighty pounds, and that we +took them only for "plaisir," not to sell. Had we carried two pet +cameleopards, he probably would not have been astonished. + +The guests at the German inn of this long-named town amused us much by +their respectful curiosity. Our dress in perfect unison, both alike in +grey flannel, puzzled them exceedingly; but this sort of perplexity +about costume and whence why and whither was an everyday occurrence for +months afterwards with me. + +A fine breeze enabled us to start on the river Main under sail, though +we lost much time in forcing the boats to do yachts' work; and I am +inclined to believe that sailing on rivers is rather a mistake unless +with a favourable wind. The Main is an easy stream to follow, and the +scenery only so-so. A storm of rain at length made it lunch-time, so we +sheltered ourselves in a bleak sort of arbour attached to an inn, where +they could give us only sour black bread and raw bacon. Eating this poor +cheer in a wet, rustling breeze and pattering rain, half-chilled in our +macintoshes, was the only time I fared badly, so little of "roughing it" +was there in this luxurious tour. + +Fine weather came soon again and pleasure,--nay, positive sporting; for +there were wild ducks quite impudent in their familiarity, and herons +wading about with that look of injured innocence they put on when you +dare to disturb them. So my friend capped his revolver-pistol, and I +acted as a pointer dog, stealing along the other side of the river, and +indicating the position of the game with my paddle. + +Vast trouble was taken. Lord A. went ashore, and crawled on the bank a +long way to a wily bird, but, though the sportsman had shown himself at +Wimbledon to be one of the best shots in the world, it was evidently not +easy to shoot a heron with a pocket revolver. + +As the darker shades fell, even this rather stupid river became +beautiful; and our evening bath was in a quiet pool, with pure yellow +sand to rest on if you tired in swimming. At Hanau we stopped for the +night. + +The wanderings and turnings of the Main next day have really left no +impression on my memory, except that we had a pleasant time, and at last +came to a large Schloss, where we observed on the river a boat evidently +English. While we examined this craft, a man told us it belonged to the +Prince of Wales, "and he is looking at you now from the balcony." + +For this was the Duchess of Cambridge's Schloss at Rumpenheim, and +presently a four-in-hand crossed the ferry, and the Prince and Princess +of Wales drove in it by the river-side, while we plied a vigorous paddle +against the powerful west wind until we reached Frankfort, where our wet +jackets were soon dried at the _Russie_, one of the best hotels in +Europe. + +The Frankfort boatmen were much interested next day to see the two +English canoes flitting about so lightly on their river; sometimes +skimming the surface with the wind, and despising the contrary stream; +then wheeling about, and paddling hither and thither in shallows where +it seemed as if the banks were only moist. + +On one occasion we both got into my canoe, and it supported the +additional weight perfectly well, which seemed to prove that the +dimensions of it were unnecessarily large for the displacement required. +However, there was not room for both of us to use our paddles +comfortably in the same canoe. + +On the Sunday, the Royal personages came to the English church at +Frankfort, and, with that quiet behaviour of good taste which wins more +admiration that any pageantry, they walked from the place of worship +like the rest of the hearers. + +There is a true grandeur in simplicity when the occasion is one of +solemn things. + +Next day my active and pleasant companion had to leave me on his return +to England. Not satisfied with a fortnight's rifle practice at +Wimbledon, where the best prize of the year was won by his skill, he +must return to the moors and coverts for more deadly sport; and the +calls of more important business, besides, required his presence at +home. He paddled down the Rhine to Cologne, and on the way several times +performed the difficult feat of hooking on his canoe to a steamer going +at full speed. + +Meantime, my boat went along with me by railway to Freyburg, from whence +the new voyage was really to begin, for as yet the Rob Roy had not +paddled in parts unknown. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Höllenthal Pass--Ladies--Black Forest--Night Music--Beds--Lake + Titisee--Pontius Pilate--Storm--Starers--Singers--Source of the + Danube. + + +Planning your summer tour is one of the most agreeable of occupations. +It is in June or July that the Foreign Bradshaw becomes suddenly of +intense interest, and the well-known pages of "Steamers and +Railways"--why, it is worth while being a bachelor to be able to read +each of these as part of your sketched-out plan, and (oh, selfish +thought!) to have only one mind to consult as to whither away. + +All this pleasure is a good deal influenced, however, by true answers to +these questions,--Have you worked hard in working time, so as to be +entitled to play in these playhours? Is this to be a vacation of +refreshment, or an idle lounge and killing of time? Are you going off to +rest, and to recruit delicate health, or with vigour to enjoy a summer +of active exertion? + +But now the infallible Bradshaw could not help me with the canoe one +iota, and Baedeker was not written for a boat; so at Freyburg my plans +resolved themselves into the simple direction, "Go at once to the source +of the Danube." + +Next morning, therefore, found the Rob Roy in a cart, and the +grey-clothed traveller walking beside it on the dusty Höllenthal road. +The gay, light-hearted exultation of being strong and well, and on a +right errand, and with unknown things to do and places to see and people +to meet, who can describe this? How easy it is at such times to be glad, +and to think this is being "thankful." + +After moralizing for a few miles, a carriage full of English people +overtook me, and soon we became companions. "The English are so distant, +so silent, such _hauteur_, and gloomy distrust," forsooth! A false +verdict, say I. The ladies carried me off through the very pretty glen, +and the canoe on its cart trundled slowly after us behind, through the +Höllenthal Pass, which is too seldom visited by travellers, who so often +admire the spire of Freyburg (from the railway perhaps), passing it on +their route to Switzerland. + +This entrance to the Schwartzwald, or Black Forest, is a woody, rocky, +and grim defile, with an excellent road, and good inns. + +The villages are of wood, and there is a saw-mill in every other house, +giving a busy, wholesome sound, mellowed by the patter of the +water-wheel. Further on, where tourists' scenery stops, it is a grand, +dark-coloured ocean of hills. The houses get larger and larger, and +fewer and fewer, and nearly every one has a little chapel built +alongside, with a wooden saint's image of life-size nailed on the gable +end. One night I was in one of these huge domiciles, when all the +servants and ploughboys came in, and half said, half sung, their +prayers, in a whining but yet musical tone, and then retired for a +hearty supper. + +Our carriage mounted still among crags, that bowed from each side to +meet across the narrow gorge, and were crested on high by the grand +trees that will be felled and floated down the Rhine on one of those +huge rafts you meet at Strasbourg. But everybody must have seen a Rhine +raft, so I need not describe it, with its acres of wood and its street +of cabin dwellings, and its gay bannerets. A large raft needs 500 men to +navigate it, and the timber will sell for 30,000_l._ + +At the top of this pass was the watershed of this first chain of hills, +where my English friends took leave of me. The Rob Roy was safely housed +in the Baar Inn, and I set off for a long walk to find if the tiny +stream there would possibly be navigable. + +Alone on a hillside in a foreign land, and with an evening sun on the +wild mountains, the playful breeze and the bleating sheep around +you--there is a certain sense of independent delight that possesses the +mind then with a buoyant gladness; but how can I explain it in words, +unless you have felt this sort of pleasure? + +However, the rivulet was found to be eminently unsuited for a canoe; so +now let me go to bed in my wooden room, where the washingbasin is oval, +and the partitions are so thin that one hears all the noises of the +place at midnight. Now, the long-drawn snore of the landlord; then, the +tittle-tattle of the servants not asleep yet,--a pussy's plaintive mew, +and the scraping of a mouse; the cows breathing in soft slumber; and, +again, the sharp rattle of a horse's chain. + +The elaborate construction of that edifice of housewifery called a +"bett" here, and which we are expected to sleep upon, can only be +understood when you have to undermine and dismantle it night after night +to arrive at a reasonable flat surface on which to recline. + +First you take off a great fluff bag, at least two feet thick, then a +counterpane, and then a brilliant scarlet blanket; next you extract one +enormous pillow, another enormous pillow, and a huge wedge-shaped +bolster,--all, it appears, requisite for the Teutonic race, who yet +could surely put themselves to sleep at an angle of forty-five degrees, +without all this trouble, by merely tilting up the end of a flat +bedstead. + +Simple but real courtesy have I found throughout. Every one says "Gut +tag;" and, even in a hotel, on getting up from breakfast a guest who has +not spoken a word will wish "Gut morgen" as he departs, and perhaps "Bon +appetit" to those not satisfied like himself. About eight o'clock the +light repast of tea or coffee, bread, butter, and honey begins the day; +at noon is "mittagessen," the mid-day meal, leaving all proper excuse +for another dining operation in the shape of a supper at seven. + +No fine manners here! My driver sat down to dinner with me, and the +waiter along with him, smoking a cigar between whiles, as he waited on +us both. But all this is just as one sees in Canada and in Norway, and +wherever there are mountains, woods, and torrent streams, with a sparse +population; and, as in Norway too, you see at once that all can read, +and they do read. There is more reading in one day in a common house in +Germany than in a month in the same sort of place in France. + +I had hired the cart and driver by the day, but he by no means admired +my first directions next morning--namely, to take the boat off the main +road, so as to get to the Titisee, a pretty mountain lake about four +miles long, and surrounded by wooded knolls. His arguments and +objections were evidently superficial, and something deeper than he said +was in his mind. In fact, it appears that, by a superstition long +cherished there, Pontius Pilate is supposed to be in that deep, still +lake, and dark rumours were told that he would surely drag me down if I +ventured upon it.[V.] + + [V.] The legend about Pilate extends over Germany and Italy. + Even on the flanks of Stromboli there is a _talus_ of the volcano which + the people dare not approach, "because of Pontius Pilate." + +Of course, this decided the matter, and when I launched the Rob Roy from +the pebbly shore in a fine foggy morning, and in full view of the +inhabitants of the region (eight in number at last census), we had a +most pleasant paddle for several miles. + +At a distance the boat was invisible being so low in the water, and they +said that "only a man was seen, whirling a paddle about his head." + +There is nothing interesting about this lake, except that it is 3,000 +feet above the sea and very lonely, in the middle of the Black Forest. +Certainly no English boat has been there before, and probably no other +will visit the deserted water. + +After this, the Rob Roy is carted again still further into the forests. +Lumbering vehicles meet us, all carrying wood. Some have joined three +carts together, and have eight horses. Others have a bullock or two +besides, and all the men are intelligent enough, for they stop and +stare, and my driver deigns to tell them, in a patois wholly beyond me, +as to what a strange fare he has got with a boat and no other luggage. +However, they invariably conclude that the canoe is being carried about +for sale, and it could have been well sold frequently already. + +About mid-day my sage driver began to mutter something at intervals, but +I could only make out from his gestures and glances that it had to do +with a storm overhead. The mixture of English, French, and German on the +borders of the Rhine accustoms one to hear odd words. "Shall have you +pottyto?" says a waiter, and he is asking if you will have potatoes. +Another hands you a dish, saying, it is "sweetbone," and you must know +it is "sweetbread." + +Yes, the storm came, and as it seldom does come except in such places. I +once heard a thunder peal while standing on the crater of Mount +Vesuvius, and I have seen the bright lightning, in cold and grand +beauty, playing on the Falls of Niagara in a sombre night, but the +vividness of the flashes to-day in the Black Forest, and the crashing, +rolling, and booming of the terrible and majestic battery of heaven was +astounding. Once a bolt fell so near and with such a blaze that the +horse albeit tired enough started off down a hill and made me quite +nervous lest he should overturn the cart and injure my precious boat, +which naturally was more and more dear to me as it was longer my sole +companion. + +As we toiled up the Rothenhaus Pass, down came the rain, whistling and +rushing through the cold, dark forests of larch, and blackening the top +of great Feldberg, the highest mountain here, and then pouring heavy and +fast on the cart and horse, the man, the canoe, and myself. This was the +last rain my boat got in the tour. All other days I spent in her were +perfectly dry. + +People stared out of their windows to see a cart and a boat in this +heavy shower--what! a boat, up here in the hills? Where can it be going, +and whose is it? Then they ran out to us, and forced the driver to +harangue, and he tried to satisfy their curiosity, but his explanation +never seemed to be quite exhaustive, for they turned homeward shaking +their heads and looking grave, even though I nodded and laughed at them +through the bars of the cart, lifting up my head among the wet straw. + +The weather dried up its tears at last, and the sun glittered on the +road, still sparkling with its rivulets of rain, but the boat was soon +dried by a sponge, while a smart walk warmed its well-soaked captain. + +The horse too had got into a cheerful vein and actually trotted with +excitement, for now it was down hill, and bright sun--a welcome change +in ten minutes from our labouring up a steep forest road in a +thunder-storm. + +The most rigid teetotaller (I am only a temperance man) would probably +allow that just a very small glass of kirchwasser might be prescribed at +this moment with advantage, and as there was no "faculty" there but +myself, I administered the dose medicinally to the driver and to his +employer, and gave a bran-mash and a rub down to the horse, which made +all three of us better satisfied with ourselves and each other, and so +we jogged on again. + +By dusk I marched into Donaueschingen, and on crossing the little +bridge, saw at once I could begin the Danube from its very source, for +there was at least three inches of water in the middle of the stream. + +In five minutes a crowd assembled round the boat, even before it could +be loosened from the cart.[VI.] + + [VI.] After trying various modes of securing the canoe in a + springless cart for long journeys on rough and hilly roads, I am + convinced that the best way is to fasten two ropes across the top of a + long cart and let the boat lie on these, which will bear it like springs + and so modify the jolts. The painter is then made fast fore and aft, so + as to keep the boat from moving back and forward. All plans for using + trusses of straw, &c., fail after a few miles of rolling gravel and + coarse ruts. + +The ordinary idlers came first, then the more shy townspeople, and then +a number of strange folk, whose exact position I could not make out, +until it was explained that the great singing meeting for that part of +Germany was to be held next day in the town, and so there were 600 +visitors, all men of some means and intelligence, who were collected +from a wide country round about. + +The town was in gala for this meeting of song. The inns were full, but +still the good landlord of the "Poste" by the bridge gave me an +excellent room, and the canoe was duly borne aloft in procession to the +coachhouse. + +What a din these tenors and basses did make at the table d'hôte! +Everything about the boat had to be told a dozen times over to them, +while my driver had a separate lecture-room on the subject below. + +The town was well worth inspection next day, for it was in a violent fit +of decoration. Every house was tidied up, and all the streets were +swept clean. From the humbler windows hung green boughs and garlands, +rugs, quilts, and blankets; while banners, Venetian streamers, arches, +mottoes, and wreaths of flowers announced the wealthier houses. Crowds +of gaping peasants paraded the streets and jostled against bands +drumming and tromboning (if there be such a word), and marching in a +somewhat ricketty manner over the undoubtedly rough pavement. Every now +and then the bustle had a fresh paroxysm when four horses rattled along, +bringing in new visitors from some distant choir. They are coming you +see in a long four-wheeled cart, covered with evergreens and bearing +four pine trees in it erect among sacks which are used as seats--only +the inmates do not sit but stand up in the cart, and shout, and sing, +and wave banners aloft, while the hundreds of on-lookers roar out the +"Hoch," the German Hurrah! with only one note. + +As every window had its ornament or device, I made one for mine also, +and my sails were festooned (rather tastefully, I flatter myself) to +support the little blue silk English jack of the canoe. This +complimentary display was speedily recognized by the Germans, who +greeted it with cheers, and sung glees below, and improvised verses +about England, and then sang round the boat itself, laughing, shouting, +and hurraing boisterously with the vigour of youthful lungs. Never tell +me again that the Germans are phlegmatic! + +[Illustration: Singers' Waggon.] + +They had a "banket" in the evening at the Museum. It was "free for all," +and so 400 came on these cheap terms, and all drank beer from long +glass cylinders at a penny a glass, all smoked cigars at a farthing a +piece, and all talked and all sang, though a splendid brass band was +playing beside them, and whenever it stopped a glee or chorus commenced. + +The whole affair was a scene of bewildering excitement, very curious to +contemplate for one sitting in the midst. Next me I found a young +bookseller who had sold me a French book in the morning. He said I must +take a ticket for the Sunday concert; but I told him I was an +Englishman, and had learned in my country that it was God's will and for +man's good to keep Sunday for far better things, which are too much +forgotten when one day in seven is not saved from the business, +excitement, and giddiness of every-day life. + +And is there not a feeling of dull sameness about time in those +countries and places where the week is not steadied and centred round a +solid day on which lofty and deep things, pure and lasting things may +have at least some hours of our attention? + +So I left the merry singers to bang their drums and hoch! at each other +in the great hall provided for their use by the Prince of Furstemburg. +He had reared this near his stables, in which are many good horses, some +of the best being English, and named on their stalls "Miss," "Pet," +"Lady," or "Tom," &c. + +An English gentleman whom I met afterwards had been travelling through +Germany with a four-in-hand drag, and he came to Donaueschingen, where +the Prince soon heard of his arrival. Next day His Serene Highness was +at his stables, and seeing an English visitor there, he politely +conducted the stranger over the whole establishment, explaining every +item with minute care. He found out afterwards that this visitor was not +the English gentleman, but only his groom! + +The intelligence, activity, and good temper of most of the German +waiters in hotels will surely be observed by travellers whose daily +enjoyment depends so much on that class. Here, for instance, is a little +waiter at the Poste Inn. He is the size of a boy, but looks twenty years +older. His face is flat, and broad, and brown, and so is his jacket. His +shoulders are high, and he reminds you of those four everlasting German +juveniles, with thick comforters about their necks, who stand in London +streets blowing brass music, with their cheeks puffed out, and their +cold grey eyes turning on all the passing objects while the music, or at +any rate a noise, blurts out as if mechanically from the big, unpolished +instruments held by red benumbed fingers. + +This waiter lad then is all the day at the beck of all, and never gets a +night undisturbed, yet he is as obliging at ten o'clock in the dark as +for the early coffee at sunrise, and he quite agrees with each guest, in +the belief that _his_ particular cutlet or cognac is the most important +feature of the hour. + +I honour this sort of man. He fills a hard place well, and Bismarck or +Mussurus cannot do more. + +Then again, there is Ulric, the other waiter, hired only for to-day as +an "extra," to meet the crush of hungry vocalists who will soon fill the +_saal_. He is timid yet, being young, and only used to a village inn +where "The Poste at Donaueschingen" is looked up to with solemn +admiration as the pink of fashion. He was learning French too, and was +sentimental, so I gave him a very matter-of-fact book, and then he asked +me to let him sit in the canoe while I was to paddle it down the river +to his home! The naïve simplicity of this request was truly refreshing, +and if we had been sure of shallow water all the way, and yet not too +shallow, it would perhaps have been amusing to admit such a passenger. + +The actual source of the Danube is by no means agreed upon any more than +the source of the Nile. I had a day's exploration of the country, after +seeking exact information on this point from the townspeople in vain. +The land round Donaueschingen is a spongy soil, with numerous rivulets +and a few large streams. I went along one of these, the Brege, which +rises twenty miles away, near St. Martin, and investigated about ten +miles of another, the Brigach, a brook rising near St. Georgen, about a +mile from the source of the Neckar, which river runs to the Rhine. These +streams join near Donaueschingen, but in the town there bubbles up a +clear spring of water in the gardens of the Prince near the church, and +this, the infant Danube, runs into the other water already wide enough +for a boat, but which then for the first time has the name of Donau. + +The name, it is said, is never given to either of the two larger +rivulets, because sometimes both have been known to fail in dry summers, +while the bubbling spring has been perennial for ages. + +The Brege and another confluent are caused to fill an artificial pond +close by the Brigach. This lake is wooded round, and has a pretty +island, and swans, and gold fish. A waterwheel (in vain covered for +concealment) pumps up water to flow from an inverted horn amid a group +of statuary in this romantic pond, and the stream flowing from it also +joins the others, now the Danube.[VII.] + + [VII.] The old Roman Ister. The name Donau is pronounced + "Doanou." Hilpert says, "Dönau allied to Dón and Düna (a river)." In + Celtic _Dune_ means "river," and _Don_ means "brown," while "_au_" in + German is "island" (like the English "eyot"). + + The other three rivers mentioned above, and depicted in the plan on the + map with this book, seem to preserve traces of their Roman names. Thus + the "Brigach" is the stream coming from the north where "Alt Breisach" + now represents the Roman "Mons Brisiacus," while the "Brege" may be + referred to "Brigantii," the people about the "Brigantinus Lacus," now + the "Boden See" (Lake Constance), where also Bregentz now represents the + Roman "Brigantius." The river Neckar was "Nicer" of old, and the Black + Forest was "Hercynia Silva." + + The reader being now sufficiently confused about the source of the + Danube and its name, let us leave the Latin in the quagmire and jump + nimbly into our canoe. + +That there might be no mistake however in this matter about the various +rivulets, I went up each stream until it would not float a canoe. Then +from near the little bridge, on August 28, while the singers _sol-faed_ +excessively at the boat, and shouted "hocks" and farewells to the +English "flagge," and the landlord bowed (his bill of thirteen francs +for three full days being duly paid), and the populace stared, the Rob +Roy shot off like an arrow on a river delightfully new. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + The Danube--Singers--Shady nooks--Geisingen--Mill + weirs--Rapids--Morning Crowd--Donkey's + stable--Islands--Monks--Spiders--Concert--Fish--A race. + + +At first the river is a few feet broad, but it soon enlarges, and the +streams of a great plain quickly bring its volume to that of the Thames +at Kingston. The quiet, dark Donau winds about then in slow serpentine +smoothness for hours in a level mead, with waving sedge on the banks and +silken sleepy weeds in the water. Here the long-necked, long-winged, +long-legged heron, that seems to have forgotten to get a body, flocks by +scores with ducks of the various wild breeds, while pretty painted +butterflies and fierce-looking dragon-flies float, as it were, on the +summer sunbeams, and simmer in the air. The haymakers are at work; and +half their work is hammering the soft edges of their very miserable +scythes, which they then dip in the water. Now they have a chat; and as +I whiz by round a corner, there is a row of open mouths and wondering +eyes, but an immediate return to courtesy with a touch of the hat, and +"Gut tag" when presence of mind is restored. Then they call to their +mates, and laugh with rustic satisfaction--a laugh that is real and +true, not cynical, but the recognition of a strange incongruity, that of +a reasonable being pent up in a boat and hundreds of miles from home, +yet whistling most cheerfully all the time. + +Soon the hills on either side have houses and old castles, and then +wood, and, lastly, rock; and with these, mingling the bold, the wild, +and the sylvan, there begins a grand panorama of river beauties to be +unrolled for days and days. No river I have seen equals this Upper +Danube, and I have visited many pretty streams. The wood is so thick, +the rocks so quaint and high and varied, the water so clear, and the +grass so green. Winding here and turning there, and rushing fast down +this reach and paddling slow along that, with each minute a fresh view, +and of new things, the mind is ever on the _qui vive_, or the boat will +go bump on a bank, crash on a rock, or plunge into a tree full of gnats +and spiders. This is veritable travelling, where skill and tact are +needed to bear you along, and where each exertion of either is rewarded +at once. I think, also, it promotes decision of character, for you +_must_ choose, and that promptly, too, between, say, five channels +opened suddenly before you. Three are probably safe, but which of these +three is the shortest, deepest, and most practicable? In an instant, if +you hesitate, the boat is on a bank; and it is remarkable how speedily +the exercise of this resolution becomes experienced into habit, but of +course only after some severe lessons. + +It is exciting to direct a camel over the sandy desert when you have +lost your fellow-travellers, and to guide a horse in trackless wilds +alone; but the pleasure of paddling a canoe down a rapid, high-banked, +and unknown river, is far more than these. + +Part of this pleasure flows from the mere sense of rapid motion. In +going down a swift reach of the river there is the same sensation about +one's diaphragm which is felt when one goes forward smoothly on a lofty +rope swing. Now the first few days of the Danube are upon very fast +waters. Between its source and Ulm the descent of the river is about +1,500 feet.[VIII.] This would give 300 feet of fall for each of a five +days' journey; and it will be seen from this that the prospect for the +day's voyage is most cheering when you launch in the morning and know +you will have to descend about the height of St. Paul's Cathedral before +halting for the night. + + [VIII.] The best geographical books give different estimates of + this, some above and others below the amount here stated. + +Another part of the pleasure--it is not to be denied--consists in the +satisfaction of overcoming difficulties. When you have followed a +channel chosen from several, and, after half-a-mile of it, you see one +and another of the rejected channels emerging from its island to join +that you are in, there is a natural pride in observing that any other +streamlet but the one you had chosen would certainly have been a +mistake. + +These reflections are by the way; and we have been winding the while +through a rich grassy plain till a bridge over the river made it seem +quite a civilized spot, and, just as I passed under, there drove along +one of the green-boughed waggons of jovial singers returning from +Donaueschingen. Of course they recognised the canoe, and stopped to give +her a hearty cheer, ending with a general chorus made up of the few +English words of their vocabulary, "All r-r-r-r-ight, Englishmánn!" "All +r-r-r-r-ight, Englishmánn!"[IX.] + + [IX.] See sketch, _ante_, page 49. + +The coincidence of these noisy but good-humoured people having been +assembled in the morning, when the canoe had started from the source of +the Danube, caused the news of its adventure to be rapidly carried to +all the neighbouring towns, so that the Rob Roy was welcomed at once, +and the newspapers recorded its progress not only in Germany and France, +but in England, and even in Sweden and in America. + +At the village of Geisingen it was discovered that the boiler of my +engine needed some fuel, or, in plain terms, I must breakfast. The +houses of the town were not close to the river, but some workmen were +near at hand, and I had to leave the canoe in the centre of the stream +moored to a plank, with very strict injunctions (in most distinct +English!) to an intelligent boy to take charge of her until my return; +and then I walked to the principal street, and to the best-looking +house, and knocked, entered, asked for breakfast, and sat down, and was +speedily supplied with an excellent meal. One after another the people +came in to look at the queer stranger who was clad so oddly, and had +come--aye, _how_ had he come? that was what they argued about in +whispers till he paid his bill, and then they followed to see where he +would go, and thus was there always a congregation of inquisitive but +respectful observers as we started anew. + +Off again, though the August sun is hot. But we cannot stop now. The +shade will be better enjoyed when resting in the boat under a high rock, +or in a cool water cave, or beneath a wooden bridge, or within the +longer shadow of a pine-clad cliff. + +Often I tried to rest those midday hours (for one cannot always work) on +shore, in a house, or on a grassy bank; but it was never so pleasant as +at full length in the canoe, under a thick grown oak-tree, with a book +to read dreamily, and a mild cigar at six for a penny, grown in the +fields we passed, and made up at yesterday's inn.[X.] + + [X.] Two stimulants well known in England are much used in + Germany,--tea and tobacco. + + (1) The tobacco plant (sometimes styled a weed, because it also grows + wild) produces leaves, which are dried and rolled, and then treated with + fire, using an appropriate instrument, by which the fumes are inhaled. + The effect upon many persons is to soothe; but it impairs the appetite + of others. The use is carried to excess in Turkey. The leaves contain a + deadly poison. + + (2) The tea weed (sometimes styled a plant, because it also grows under + cultivation) produces leaves, which are dried and rolled, and then + treated with fire, using an appropriate instrument, by which the + infusion is imbibed. The effect upon many persons is to cheer; but it + impairs the sleep of others. The use is carried to excess in Russia. The + leaves contain a deadly poison. + + Both these luxuries are cheap and portable, and are daily enjoyed by + millions of persons in all climates. Both require care and moderation in + their use. Both have advocates and enemies; and it cannot be settled by + argument whether the plant or the weed is the more useful or hurtful to + mankind. + +Let it be well understood that this picture only describes the resting +time, and not the active hours of progress in the cooler part of the day +before and after the bright meridian sun. + +In working hours there was no lazy lolling, the enjoyment was that of +delightful exertion, varied at every reach of the river. + +You start, indeed, quietly enough, but are sure soon to hear the +well-known rushing sound of a milldam, and this almost every day, five +or six times. On coming to it I usually went straight along the top edge +of the weir, looking over for a good place to descend by, and surveying +the innumerable little streams below to see my best course afterwards. +By this time the miller and his family and his men, and all the +neighbours, would run down to see the new sight, but I always lifted out +my little black knapsack and put my paddle on shore, and then stepped +out and pulled my boat over or round the obstruction, sometimes through +a hayfield or two, or by a lane, or along a wall, and then launched her +again in deep water. Dams less than four feet high one can "shoot" with +a headlong plunge into the little billows at the foot, but this wrenches +the boot if it strikes against a stone, and it is better to get out and +ease her through, lift her over, or drag her round. + +In other places I had to sit astride on the stern of the canoe, with +both legs in the water, fending her off from big stones on either side, +and cautiously steering.[XI.] + + [XI.] The invention of this method was made here, but its + invaluable advantages were more apparent in passing the second rapid of + Rheinfelden. See _post_, page 186, where described, with a sketch. + +But with these amusements, and a little wading, you sit quite dry, and, +leaning against the backboard, smoothly glide past every danger, lolling +at ease where the current is excessive, and where it would not be safe +to add impetus, for the shock of a collision there would break the +strongest boat. + +If incidents like these, and the scenery and the people ashore, were not +enough to satisfy the ever greedy mind, some louder plashing, with a +deeper roar, would announce the rapids. This sound was sure to waken up +any sleepiness, and once in the middle of rough water all had to be +energy and life. + +I never had a positive upset, but of course I had to jump out +frequently to save the boat, for the first care was the canoe, and the +second was my luggage, to keep it all dry, the sketch-book in +particular, while the third object was to get on comfortably and fast. + +After hours of these pleasures of work and rest, and a vast deal seen +and heard and felt that would take too long to tell, the waning sun, and +the cravings within for dinner, warned me truly that I had come near the +stopping-place for the night. + +The town of Tuttlingen is built on both sides of the river, and almost +every house is a dyer's shop or a tannery, with men beating, scraping, +and washing hides in the water. As I allowed the boat to drift among +these the boys soon found her out--a new object--and therefore to boys +(and may it always be so) well worth a shout and a run; so a whole posse +of little Germans scampered along beside me, but I could not see any +feasible-looking inn. + +It is one of the privileges of this water tour that you can survey +calmly all the whereabouts; and being out of reach of the touters and +porters who harass the wretched traveller delivered to their grasp from +an omnibus or a steamboat, you can philosophize on the whole _morale_ of +a town, and if so inclined can pass it, and simply go on. In fact, on +several occasions I did not fancy a town, so we went on to another. +However, I was fairly nonplussed now. It would not do to go further, for +it was not a thickly-peopled country; but I went nearly to the end of +the place in search of a good landing, till I turned into a millrace and +stepped ashore. + +The crowd pressed so closely that I had to fix on a boy who had a toy +barrow with four little wheels, and amid much laughter I persuaded the +boy to lend it (of course as a great honour to him), and so I pulled the +boat on this to the hotel. The boy's sixpence of reward was a fact that +brought all the juvenile population together, and though we hoisted the +canoe into a hayloft and gave very positive injunction to the ostler to +keep her safe, there was soon a string of older sightseers admitted one +by one; and even at night they were mounting the ladder with lanterns, +women as well as men, to examine the "schiff." + +A total change of garments usually enabled me to stroll through the +villages in the evening without being recognised, but here I was +instantly known as I emerged for a walk, and it was evident that an +unusual attendance must be expected in the morning. + +Tuttlingen is a very curious old town, with a good inn and bad pavement, +tall houses, all leaning here and there, and big, clumsy, +honest-looking men lounging after their work, and wonderfully +satisfied to chat in groups amid the signal darkness of unlighted +streets; very fat horses and pleasant-looking women, a bridge, and +numerous schoolboys; these are my impressions of Tuttlingen. + +[Illustration: MORNING VISITORS. Page 65.] + +Even at six o'clock next morning these boys had begun to assemble for +the sight they expected, and those of them who had satchels on their +backs seemed grievously disappointed to find the start would not come +off before their hour for early school. + +However, the grown-up people came instead, and flocked to the bridge and +its approaches. While I was endeavouring to answer all the usual +questions as to the boat, a man respectfully asked me to delay the start +five minutes, as his aged father, who was bedridden, wished exceedingly +just to see the canoe. In all such cases it is a pleasure to give +pleasure, and to sympathize with the boundless delight of the boys, +remembering how as a boy a boat delighted me; and then, again, these +worthy, mother-like, wholesome-faced dames, how could one object to +their prying gaze, mingled as it was with friendly smile and genuine +interest? + +The stream on which I started here was not the main channel of the +Danube, but a narrow arm of the river conducted through the town, while +the other part fell over the mill-weir. The woodcut shows the scene at +starting, and there were crowds as large as this at other towns; but a +picture never can repeat the shouts and bustle, or the sound of guns +firing and bells ringing, which on more than one occasion celebrated the +Rob Roy's morning paddle. + +The lovely scenery of this day's voyage often reminded me of that upon +the Wye,[XII.] in its best parts between Ross and Chepstow. There were the +white rocks and dark trees, and caverns, crags, and jutting peaks you +meet near Tintern; but then the Wye has no islands, and its muddy water +at full tide has a worse substitute in muddier banks when the sea has +ebbed. + + [XII.] Murray says: "The Meuse has been compared to the Wye; but + is even more romantic than the English river." I would rank the Wye as + much above the Meuse as below the Danube for romance in scenery. + +The islands on beauteous Donau were of all sizes and shapes. Some low +and flat, and thickly covered with shrubs; others of stalwart rock, +stretching up at a sharp angle, under which the glassy water bubbled all +fresh and clear. + +Almost each minute there was a new scene, and often I backed against +the current to hold my post in the best view of some grand picture. +Magnificent crags reached high up on both sides, and impenetrable +forests rung with echoes when I shouted in the glee of health, freedom, +and exquisite enjoyment. + +But scenes and sentiments will not feed the hungry paddler, so I decided +to stop at Friedingen, a village on the bank. There was a difficulty now +as to where the canoe could be left, for no inn seemed near enough to +let me guard her while I breakfasted. At length a mason helped me to +carry the Rob Roy into a donkey's stable, and a boy volunteered to guide +the stranger to the best inn. The first, and the second, and the third +he led me to were all beerhouses, where only drink could be had; and as +the crowd augmented at every stage, I dismissed the ragged cicerone, and +trusted myself instead to the sure leading of that unnamed instinct +which guides a hungry man to food. Even the place found at last, was +soon filled with wondering spectators. A piece of a German and English +dictionary from my baggage excited universal attention, and was several +times carried outside to those who had not secured reserved seats +within. + +The magnificent scenery culminated at Beuron, where a great convent on a +rich mound of grass is nearly surrounded by the Danube, amid a spacious +amphitheatre of magnificent white cliffs perfectly upright, and clad +with the heaviest wood. + +The place looks so lonely, though fair, that you could scarcely believe +you might stop there for the night, and so I had nearly swept by it +again into perfect solitude, but at last pulled up under a tree, and +walked through well ploughed fields to the little hamlet in this +sequestered spot. + +The field labourers were of course surprised at the apparition of a man +in flannel, who must have come out of the river; but the people at the +Kloster had already heard of the "schiff," and the Rob Roy was soon +mounted on two men's shoulders, and borne in triumph to the excellent +hotel. The Prince who founded the monastery is, I believe, himself a +monk. + +Now tolls the bell for "even song," while my dinner is spread in an +arbour looking out on this grand scene, made grander still by dark +clouds gathering on the mountains, and a loud and long thunder peal, +with torrents of rain. + +This deluge of wet came opportunely when I had such good shelter, as it +cooled the air, and would strengthen the stream of the river; so I +admired the venerable monks with complacent satisfaction, a feeling +never so complete as when you are inside, and you look at people who +are out in the rain. + +A young girl on a visit to her friends here could talk bad French +rapidly, so she was sent to gossip with me as I dined; and then the +whole family inspected my sketch-book, a proceeding which happened at +least twice every day for many weeks of the voyage. This emboldened me +to ask for some music, and we adjourned to a great hall, where a concert +was soon in progress with a guitar, a piano, and a violin, all well +played; and the Germans are never at a loss for a song. + +My young visitor, Melanie, then became the interpreter in a curious +conversation with the others, who could speak only German; and I +ventured to turn our thoughts on some of the nobler things which ought +not to be long absent from the mind--I mean, what is loved, and feared, +enjoyed, and derided, as "religion." + +In my very limited baggage I had brought some selected pieces and +Scripture anecdotes and other papers in French and German, and these +were used on appropriate occasions, and were always well received, often +with exceedingly great interest and sincere gratitude. + +Some people are shy about giving tracts, or are even afraid of them. But +then some people are shy of speaking at all, or even dislike to ride, +or skate, or row. One need not laugh at another for this. + +The practice of carrying a few printed pages to convey in clear language +what one cannot accurately speak in a foreign tongue is surely +allowable, to say the least. But I invariably find it to be very useful +and interesting to myself and to others; and, as it hurts nobody, and +has nothing in it of which to be proud or ashamed, and as hundreds of +men do it, and as I have done it for years, and will do it again, I am +far too old a traveller to be laughed out of it now. + +The Kloster at Beuron is a favourite place for excursionists from the +towns in the neighbourhood, and no doubt some day soon it will be a +regular "place to see" for English travellers rowing down the Danube; +for it is thus, and only thus, you can approach it with full effect. The +moon had come forth as I leaned out of my bedroom window, and it +whitened the ample circus of beetling crags, and darkened the trees, +while a fainter and redder light glimmered from the monks' chapel, as +the low tones of midnight chanting now and then reached the ear. Perhaps +it is better to wear a monk's cowl than to wear consistently a layman's +common coat in the workday throng of life; and it _may_ be better to +fast and chant and kneel at shrines than to be temperate and thankful +and prayerful in the busy world. But I doubt. + +After leaving Beuron, with the firing of guns and the usual pleasant +good wishes from the shore, the Danube carried us between two lofty +rocks, and down calm reaches for hours. The water was unspeakably clear; +you could see right into deep caverns far below. I used to gaze +downwards for so long a time at the fish moving about, and to strike at +them with my long paddle (never once hitting any), that I forgot the +boat was swinging along all the time, till bump she went on a bank, or +crash against a rocky isle, or rumbling into some thick trees, when a +shower of leaves, spiders, and rubbish wakened up my reverie. Then, +warned by the shock, I return to the plain duty of looking ahead, until, +perhaps, after an hour's active rushing through narrow "guts," and over +little falls, and getting out and hauling the boat down larger ones, my +eyes are wandering again, gazing at the peaks overhead, and at the +eagles soaring above them, and at the clear blue sky above all; till +again the Rob Roy heels over on a sunken stone, and I have to jump out +nimbly to save her from utter destruction. For days together I had my +feet bare, and my trousers tucked up, ready to wade at any moment, and +perfectly comfortable all the time, for a fiery sun dried every thing in +a few minutes. + +The physical enjoyment of such a life to one in good health and good +spirits, with a good boat and good scenery, is only to be appreciated +after experience; for these little reminders that one must not actually +_sleep_ on a rushing river never resulted in any disaster, and I came +home without a cold or a scratch, or a hole in the boat, or one single +day regretted. May this be so for many a John Bull let loose on the +Continent to "paddle his own canoe." + +On the rivers where there is no navigation and no towing paths it was +impossible to estimate the distances traversed each day, except by the +number of hours I was at work, the average speed, the strength of the +wind and current, and the number of stoppages for food or rest, or +mill-weirs, waterfalls, or barriers. Thirty miles was reckoned to be a +good day's work, and I have sometimes gone forty miles in a day; but +twenty was quite enough when the scenery and incidents on the way filled +up every moment of time with varied sensations of new pleasures. + +It will generally be found, I think, that for walking in a pleasant +country twenty miles a day is enough for mind and body to be active and +observant all the time. But the events that occur in river work are far +more frequent and interesting than those on the road, for you have all +the circumstances of your boat in addition to what fills the +pedestrian's journal, and after a little time your canoe becomes so much +a companion (friend, shall I say?) that every turn it takes and every +knock and grate on its side is felt as if it were your own. The boat +gets to be individualized, and so does the river, till at last there is +a pleasant rivalry set up, for it is "man and boat" _versus_ the river +and all it can place in your way. + +After a few tours on the Continent your first hour in a railway or +diligence may be new and enjoyable, but you soon begin to wish for the +end of the road, and after a short stay in the town you have come to you +begin to talk (or think) of when you are to leave. Now a feature of the +boating tour is that quiet progress can be enjoyed all the time, because +you have personal exertion or engagement for every moment, and your +observation of the scenery around is now most minute and interesting, +because every bend and slope of it tells at once what you have to do. + +Certainly the pleasure of a day is not to be measured by the number of +miles you have gone over. The voyage yesterday, for instance, was one of +the very best for enjoyment of scenery, incident, and exercise, yet it +was the shortest day I had. The guide-book says, "Tuttlingen is twelve +miles"--by river, say eighteen--"from Kloster Beuron, where the fine +scenery begins. This part of the Danube is not navigable." + +I will not say that on some occasions I did not wish for the end of the +day's work, when arms were weary, and the sun was low, and yearnings of +the inner man grumbling for dinner, especially when no one could tell +how far it was to any house, or whether you could stop there all night +if you reached it. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Sigmaringen--Treacherous trees--Congress of herons--Flying + Dutchman--Tub and shovel--Bottle race--Snags--Bridge perils--Ya + Vol--Ferry rope--Benighted. + + +The sides of the river were now less precipitous, and the road came +within a field or two of the water, and made it seem quite homely for a +time. + +I had heard a loud jingling sound on this road for at least +half-an-hour, and observed a long cart with two horses trotting fast, +and evidently daring to race with the Rob Roy. But at length such +earnest signals were made from it that I stopped, and the cart at once +pulled up, and from it there ran across the field a man breathless and +hot, without his hat, and followed by two young ladies, equally hurried. +He was a German, resident for a short time in London, and now at home +for a month's holiday, and he was prodigal of thanks for my "great +courtesy" in having stopped that the ladies might see the canoe which +they had followed thus for some miles, having heard of its fame at their +village. On another occasion three youths voluntarily ran alongside the +boat and panted in the sun, and tumbled over stocks and stones at such a +rate, that after a mile of the supererogatory exercise, I asked what it +was all about. Excellent villagers! they had taken all this trouble to +arrive at a point further down the stream where they knew there was a +hard place, and they thought they might help me in passing it. + +Such exertions on behalf of a stranger were really most kind, and when I +allowed them to give a nominal help, where in reality it was easy enough +to get on unaided, they were much delighted and more than rewarded, and +went back prattling their purest Suabian in a highly satisfied frame of +mind. + +Many are the bends and currents, but at last we arrive at the town of +Sigmaringen. It has certainly an aristocratic air, though there are only +3,000 inhabitants; but then it has a Principality, though the whole +population of this is only 52,000. Fancy a parish in London with a +Prince all to themselves, and--bearing such a fine grand name too--"His +Royal Serene Highness the Hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern +Sigmaringen." But though I have often laughed at this petty kingdom in +the Geography books, I shall never do so again, for it contains some of +the most beautiful river scenery in the world, and I never had more +unalloyed pleasure in passing through a foreign dominion. + +There are pretty gardens here, and a handsome Protestant church, and a +few good shops, schlosses on the hills, and older castles perched on +high rocks in the usual picturesque and uncomfortable places where our +ancestors built their nests. + +The Deutscher Hof is the hotel just opened three weeks ago, and all its +inmates are in a flutter when their first English guest marches up to +the door with a boat and a great company of gazers. The waiter too, all +fresh from a year in London at the Palace Hotel, Buckingham Gate, how +glad he is that his English is now in requisition, sitting by me at +dinner and talking most sensibly all the time. + +The weather still continued superb as we paddled away. Deep green woods +dipped their lower branches in the water, but I found that the stream +had sometimes a fashion of carrying the boat under these, and it is +especially needful to guard against this when a sharp bend with a fast +current hurries you into a wooded corner. Indeed, strange as it may +seem, there was more danger to the boat from these trees than from rocks +or banks, and far more trouble. For when the boat gets under their low +branches your paddle is quite powerless, because you cannot lower one +end to hold the water without raising the other and so catching it in +the trees. Then if you put your head down forward you cannot see, and +the boughs are generally as hard as an ordinary skull when the two are +in collision. Finally, if you lean backwards the twigs scrape your face +and catch upon a nose even of ordinary length, and if you take your hand +from the paddle to protect the face away goes the paddle into the river. +Therefore, although my hat was never knocked off, and my skull was +always the hardest, and my paddle was never lost, and my nose was never +de-Romanized by the branches, I set it down as a maxim, to keep clear of +trees in a stream. + +Still it was tempting to go under shady groves when I tried to surprise +a flock of herons or a family of wild ducks. + +Once we came upon twenty-four herons all together. As my boat advanced +silently, steadily gliding, it was curious to watch these birds, who had +certainly never been disturbed before by any boat in such a place. + +They stared eagerly at me and then looked at each other, and evidently +took a vote of the assembly as to what all this could mean. If birds' +faces can give any expression of their opinions, it is certain that one +of these herons was saying then to the others "Did you ever?" and an +indignant sneer was on another's beak that plainly answered, "Such +impudence indeed!" while a third added, with a sarcastic chirp, "And a +foreigner too!" But, after consultation, they always got up and circled +round, flew down stream, and then settled all again together in an +adjourned meeting. A few minutes brought me to their new retreat, and so +we went on for miles, they always flying down stream, and always +assembling, though over and over again disturbed, until an amendment on +the plan was moved and they bent their way aside. + +A pleasant and favourable breeze springing up, which soon freshened into +a gale, I now set my sails, and the boat went with very great speed; +dashing over rocks and bounding past the haymakers so fast that when one +who caught sight of her had shouted to the rest of his "mates," the +sight was departed for ever before they came, and I heard them behind me +arguing, probably about the ghost. + +But it was a shame to be a phantom ship too often, and it was far more +amusing to go right into the middle of these people, who knew nothing +about the canoe, who had never seen a boat, and never met a foreigner in +their lives. Thus, when a waterfall was found too high to "shoot," or a +wide barrier made it advisable to take the boat by land, I used to walk +straight into the hayfields, pushing the boat point foremost through a +hedge, or dragging her steadily over the wet newly-mown grass in literal +imitation of the American craft which could go "wherever there was a +heavy dew." On such occasions the amazement of the untaught clowns, +beholding suddenly such an apparition, was beyond all description. Some +even ran away, very often children cried outright, and when I looked +gravely on the ground as I marched and dragged the boat, and then +suddenly stopped in their midst with a hearty laugh and an address in +English, the whole proceeding may have appeared to them at least as +strange as it did to me. + +[Illustration: "In the Hayfields."] + +The water of the river all at once became here of a pale white colour, +and I was mourning that my pretty scenes below were clouded; but in +about thirty miles the pebbly deeps appeared again, and the stream +resumed its charming limpid clearness. This matter of dark or bright +water is of some importance, because, when it is clear you can easily +estimate after a little experience the general depth, even at some +distance, by the shades and hues of the water, while the sunk rocks, big +stones, and other particular obstacles are of course more visible then. + +Usually I got well enough fed at some village, or at least at a house, +but in this lonely part of the river it seemed wise to take provender +with me in the boat, and to picnic in some quiet pool, with a shady tree +above. One of the very few boats I saw on the river appeared as I was +thus engaged, and a little boy was in it. His specimen of naval +architecture (no doubt the only one he had ever seen) was an odd +contrast to the beautifully finished canoe made by Searle. He had a pole +and a shovel; the latter article he used as a paddle, and his boat was +of enormous thickness and clumsiness, made of three planks, abundantly +clamped with iron. I gave him some bread, and we had a chat; then some +butter, and then some cheese. He would not take wine, but he produced a +cigar from his wet jacket, and also two matches, which he lighted with +great skill. We soon got to be friends, as people do who are together +alone, and in the same mode of travelling, riding, or sailing, or on +camels' backs. So we smiled in sympathy, and I asked him if he could +read, and gave him a neat little page prettily printed in German, with a +red border. This he read very nicely and was glad to put in his ragged +pocket; but he could scarcely part from me, and struggled vainly to urge +his tub along with the shovel till we came to a run of dashing waves, +and then of course I had to leave him behind, looking and yearning, with +a low, murmuring sound, and a sorrowful, earnest gaze I shall never +forget. + +Shoals of large and small fish are in this river, and very few +fishermen. I did not see ten men fishing in ten days. But the pretty +little Kingfisher does not neglect his proper duties, and ever and anon +his round blue back shines in the sun as he hurries away with a note of +protest against the stranger who has invaded his preserves. Bees are +buzzing while the sun is hot, and when it sinks, out gush the endless +mazes of gnats to hop and flit their tangled dances, the creatures of a +day--born since the morning, and to die at night. + +Before the Danube parted with the rocks that had been on each side for +days together, it played some strange pranks among them, and they with +it. + +Often they rose at each side a hundred feet without a bend, and then +behind these were broken cliffs heaved this way and that, or tossed +upside down, or as bridges hanging over chasms. + +Here and there a huge splinted tooth-like spire of stone stuck out of +the water, leaning at an angle. Sometimes in front there was a veritable +upright wall, as smooth as if it were chiselled, and entirely cutting +off the middle of the stream. In advancing steadily to such a place it +was really impossible to determine on which side the stream could by any +means find an exit, and once indeed I was persuaded that it must descend +below. + +In other cases the river, which had splayed out its width to that of the +Thames at Hungerford, would suddenly narrow its size to a six-foot +passage, and rush down that with a "whishhh!" The Rob Roy cheerily sped +through these, but I landed to scan the course before attempting the +most difficult cuts.--Oh how lonely it was! A more difficult vagary to +cope with was when in a dozen petty streams the water tumbled over as +many little cascades, and only one was passable--sometimes not one. The +interest of finding these, examining, trying, failing, and succeeding, +was a continuous delight, and filled up every mile with a series of +exciting incidents, till at length the rocks were done. + +And now we enter a vast plain, with the stream bending round on itself, +and hurrying swiftly on through the innumerable islands, eddies, and +"snags," or trees uprooted, sticking in the water. At the most critical +part of this labyrinth we were going a tremendous pace, when suddenly we +came to a fork in the river, with the volumes of water going down both +channels nearly equal. We could not descend by one of these because a +tree would catch the mast, so I instantly turned into the other, when up +started a man and shouted impetuously that no boat could pass by _that_ +course. It was a moment of danger, but I lowered the sails in that +moment, took down my mast, and, despite stream and gale, I managed to +paddle back to the proper channel. As no man had been seen for hours +before, the arrival of this warning note was opportune. + +A new amusement was invented to-day--it was to pitch out my empty +wine-bottle and to watch its curious bobbings and whirlings as the +current carried it along, while I floated near and compared the natural +course taken by the bottle with the selected route which intelligence +gave to the Rob Roy. Soon the bottle became impersonated, and we were +racing together, and then a sympathy began for its well-known cork as it +plumped down when its bottom struck a stone--for the bottle drew more +water than my canoe--and every time it grounded there came a loud and +melancholy clink of the glass, and down it went. + +The thick bushes near the river skirted it now for miles, and at one +place I could see above me, through the upper branches, about 20 +haymakers, men and women, who were honestly working away, and therefore +had not observed my approach. + +I resolved to have a bit of fun here, so we closed in to the bank, but +still so as to see the industrious group. Then suddenly I began in a +very loud voice with-- + + "Rule, Britannia, + Britannia rules the waves." + +Long before I got to the word "slaves" the whole party were like +statues, silent and fixed in amazement. Then they looked right, left, +before, behind, and upwards in all directions, except, of course, into +the river, for why should they look _there_? nothing had ever come up +from the river to disturb their quiet mead. I next whistled a lively +air, and then dashing out of my hiding-place stood up in my boat, and +made a brief (but, we trust, brilliant) speech to them in the best +English I could muster, and in a moment afterwards we had vanished from +their sight. + +A little further on there was some road-making in progress, and I pulled +up my boat under a tree and walked up to the "barraque," or workman's +canteen, and entered among 30 or 40 German "navvies," who were sitting +at their midday beer. I ordered a glass and drank their health standing, +paid, bowed, and departed, but a general rush ensued to see where on +earth this flannel-clad being had come from, and they stood on the bank +in a row as I waded, shoved, hauled, paddled, and carried my boat +through a troublesome labyrinth of channels and embankments, with which +their engineering had begun to spoil the river. + +But the bridges one had now more frequently to meet were far worse +encroachments of civilization, for most of them were so low that my mast +would not pass under without heeling the boat over to one side, so as to +make the mast lean down obliquely. In one case of this kind she was very +nearly shipwrecked, for the wind was so good that I would not lower the +sail, and this and a swift current took us (me and my boat--she is now, +you see, installed as a "person") rapidly to the centre arch, when just +as we entered I noticed a fierce-looking snag with a sharp point exactly +in my course. To swerve to the side would be to strike the wooden pier, +but even this would be better (for I might ward off the violence of a +blow near my hands) than to run on the snag, which would be certain to +cut a hole. + +With a heavy thump on the pier the canoe began to capsize, and only by +the nearest escape was she saved from foundering. What I thought was a +snag turned out to be the point of an iron stake or railing, carelessly +thrown into the water from the bridge above. + +It may be here remarked that many hidden dangers occur near bridges, for +there are wooden or iron bars fixed under water, or rough sharp stones +lying about, which, being left there when the bridge was building, are +never removed from a river not navigable or used by boats. + +Another kind of obstruction is the thin wire rope suspended across the +rivers, where a ferry is established by running a flat boat over the +stream with cords attached to the wire rope. The rope is black in +colour, and therefore is not noticed till you approach it too near to +lower the mast, but this sort of danger is easily avoided by the +somewhat sharp "look-out" which a week or two on the water makes quite +instinctive and habitual. Perhaps one of the many advantages of a river +tour is the increased acuteness of observation which it requires and +fosters. + +I stopped next at a clumsy sort of town called Riedlingen, where an +Englishman is a very rare visitor. The excitement here about the boat +became almost ridiculous, and one German, who had been in America and +could jabber a little in English, was deputed to ask questions, while +the rest heard the answers interpreted. + +Next morning at eight o'clock at least a thousand people gathered on the +bridge and its approaches to see the boat start, and shoals of +schoolboys ran in, each with his little knapsack of books.[XIII.] + + [XIII.] Knapsack, from "schnap," "sach," provision bag, for "bits + and bats," as we should say; havresack is from "hafer," "forage bag." + Query.--Does this youthful carriage of the knapsack adapt boys for + military service, and does it account for the high shoulders of many + Germans? + +The scenery after this became of only ordinary interest compared with +what I had passed through, but there would have been little spare time +to look at it had it been ever so picturesque, for the wind was quite a +gale,[XIV.] and right in my favour, and the stream was fast and tortuous +with banks, eddies, and innumerable islands and cross channels, so that +the navigation occupied all one's energy, especially as it was a point +of honour not to haul down the sail in a fair wind. + + [XIV.] In the newspaper accounts of the weather it was stated that + at this time a storm swept over Central Europe. + +Midday came, and yet I could find no place to breakfast, though the +excitement and exertion of thus sailing was really hard work. But still +we hurried on, for dark clouds were gathering behind, and thunder and +rain seemed very near. + +"Ah," said I inwardly, "had I only listened to that worthy dame's +entreaties this morning to take good provision for the day!" She had +smiled like the best of mothers, and timidly asked to be allowed to +touch my watch-chain, "it was so _schon_," so beautiful to see. But, +oddly enough, we had taken no solid food on board to-day, being so +impatient to get off when the wind was strong and fair. The rapid pace +then brought us to Ehingen, the village I had marked on the map for this +night's rest. But now we came there it was found to be _too soon_--I +could not stop for the day with such a splendid breeze inviting +progress; nor would it do to leave the boat on the bank and go to the +village to eat, for it was too far from the river, and so the current +and sails must hurry us on as before. + +Now and then I asked some gazing agriculturist on the bank where the +nearest houses were, but he never could understand that I meant +_nearest, and also close to the river_; so the end of every discussion +was that he said, "Ya vol," which means in Yankee tongue, "That's so"; +in Scottish, "Hoot, aye"; in Irish, "Troth, an' it is"; and in French, +"C'est vrai"; but then none of this helps one a bit. + +I therefore got first ravenous and then faint, and after mounting the +bank to see the turns of the river in advance, I actually fell asleep +under a tree. The wind had quite subsided when I awoke, and then quaffed +deep draughts of water and paddled on. + +The banks were now of yellow mud, and about eight or ten feet high, +quite straight up from the water, just like those on the Nile, and +several affluent streams ran from the plain to join the river. Often, +indeed, I saw a church tower right ahead, and laboured along to get +there, but after half-a-mile the stream would turn sharp round to one +side, and still more and more round, and at last the tower once in front +was directly behind us. The explanation of this tormenting peculiarity +was simply this,--that the villages were carefully built _away_ from the +river bank because it is a bad foundation, and is washed away as new +channels are formed by the flood. + +When the light began to fail I took a good look at the map, and +serpentine bends were marked on it plain enough indeed, but only in +one-half of their actual number; and, moreover, I saw that in the forest +we had now entered there would be no suitable villages at all. The +overhanging trees made a short twilight soon deepen into night; and to +add to the interest the snags suddenly became numerous, and some of them +waved about in the current, as they do on the Upper Mississippi, when +the tenacious mud holds down the roots merely by its weight. All this +made it necessary to paddle slowly and with great caution, and to cross +always to the slack side of the stream instead of by one's usual course, +which, in descending, is to keep with the rapid current. + +Sometimes I had to back out of shallows which were invisible in the +dark, and often I stopped a long time before a glance of some ripple +obscurely told me the probable course. The necessity for this caution +will be evident when it is remembered that in case of an upset here +_both_ sets of clothes would have been wet together, and without any +house at hand to dry them. + +All at once I heard a bell toll quite near me in the thick wood, and I +came to the bank, but it was impossible to get ashore on it, so I passed +that place too, and finally made up my mind to sleep in the boat, and +soon had all sorts of plans in course of devising. + +Just then two drops of rain came on my nose, and I resolved at once to +stop, for if my clothes got wet before I was snug in the canoe there +would be little comfort all night, without anything solid to eat since +morning, and all my cigars already puffed away. + +As I now cautiously searched for some root projecting from the bank to +make fast to, a light appeared straight in front, and I dashed forward +with the boat to reach it, and speedily ran her into a strange sort of +lake or pond, where the stream ceased, and a noise on the boat's side +told of weeds, which proved to be large round leaves on the surface, +like those of the Victoria Regia lily. + +I drew up the boat on shore, and mounted the high bank through a +thicket, carrying my long paddle as a protection against the large dogs +which farmhouses sport here, and which might be troublesome to quarrel +with in the dark. The house I came to on the top of the precipice had +its window lighted, and several people were talking inside, so I +knocked loudly, and all was silence. Then I knocked again, and whined +out that I was a poor benighted "Englander," and hoped they would let me +in, at which melancholy tale they burst out laughing, and so did I! +After an argument between us, which was equally intelligible on both +sides, a fat farmer cautiously took the light upstairs, and, opening a +window, thrust the candle forward, and gazed out upon me standing erect +as a true Briton, and with my paddle, too, but in reality a humiliated +vagrant begging for a night's lodging. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +After due scrutiny he pulled in his head and his candle, shut the +window, and fell to laughing immoderately. At this I was glad, for I +never found it difficult to get on with a man who begins in good humour. + +Presently the others went up, and I stood their gaze unflinchingly, and, +besides, made an eloquent appeal in the vernacular--mine, not theirs, be +it clearly understood. + +Finally they were satisfied that I was alone, and, though probably mad, +yet not quite a match for all of them, so they came down gallantly; but +then there was the difficulty of persuading the man to grope down to the +river on this dark night to carry up a boat. + +With some exertion we got it up by a better way, and safely locked it in +the cowhouse of another establishment, and there I was made thoroughly +comfortable. They said they had nothing to eat but kirchwasser, bread, +and eggs, and how many eggs would I like? so I said, "To begin with, +ten," and I ate them every one. By this time the priest had come; they +often used to send for the _prester_ to do the talk. The large room soon +got full, and the sketch-book was passed round, and an India-rubber band +made endless merriment for the smaller fry, all in the old routine, the +very mention of which it may be tedious to hear of so often, as indeed +it was to me to perform. + +But then in each case it was _their_ first time of going through the +performance, and they were so kind and courteous one could not refuse to +please such people. The priest was very communicative, and we tried to +converse in Latin, for my German was not good enough for him nor his +French for me. But we soon agreed that it was a long time since our +schoolboy Latin days, though I recollect having had long conversations +in Latin with a monk at Nazareth, but there we had ten days together, +and so had time to practise. + +Thus ended the 1st of September, the only occasion on which I had to +"rough it" at all during the voyage; and even then, it may be seen, the +very small discomforts were all the results of gross want of prudence on +my own part, and ended merely by a hard day's work with breakfast and +dinner merged into a late supper. My bill here was 3_s._ 6_d._, the day +before, 4_s._ 6_d._, including always wine and luxuries. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Day-dream--River Iller--Ulm--A stiff king--Lake + Constance--Seeing in the dark--Switzerland--Coloured + Canvas--Sign talk--Synagogue--Amelia--Gibberish. + + +The threatening rain had not come during the night, and it was a lovely +morning next day, like all the rest before and after it; and as we were +leaving this place I found it was called Gegglingen,[XV.] and was only +nine miles from Ulm. + + [XV.] It will be noticed how the termination "_ingen_" is common + here. Thus in our water route we have passed Donaueschingen, Geisingen, + Mehringen, Tuttlingen, Friedingen, Sigmaringen, Riedlingen, Ehingen, + Dischingen, and Gegglingen, the least and last. In England we have the + "ing" in Dorking, Kettering, &c. + +The lofty tower of the Cathedral of this town soon came in view, but I +noticed it without any pleasure, for this was to end my week on the +Danube; and in my ship's log it is entered as "one of the most pleasant +weeks of my life for scenery, health, weather, exercise, and varied +adventure." + +In a pensive mood, therefore, I landed at a garden, and reclined on a +warm mossy bank to have a rest and a day-dream, but very soon the loud +booming of artillery aroused the hill echoes, and then sharp rattling of +infantry firing. The heights around were crested with fringes of +blue-coated soldiers and glistening bayonets, amid the soft round, +cotton-like volumes of smoke from the great guns spurting out fire long +before the sound comes. It was a review of troops and a sham attack on a +fort surmounting the hill, near the battlefield of long years ago at +Ulm. If they fought in heat and fury, let them now rest in peace. + +Come back, my thoughts, to the river at my feet. + +I had been with this river from its infancy, nay, even from its birth in +the Schwartzwald. I had followed it right and left, as it seemed to +toddle in zigzag turnings like a child; and I had wound with it hither +and thither as it roamed away further like free boyhood. Then it grew in +size by feeding on the oozy plain, and was still my companion when it +got the strength of youth, dashing over the rocks, and bounding through +the forests; and I had come at last to feel its powerful stream stronger +than my strength, and compelling my respect. And now, at Ulm, I found it +a noble river, steady and swift, as if in the flower of age; but its +romance was gone. It had boats on it, and navigation, and bridges, and +railways, like other great waters; and so I would let it go on alone, +tumbling, rushing, swelling, till its broad bosom bears whole fleets at +Ofen, and at length as a great water giant it leaps down headlong into +the Black Sea. + +Having seen Ulm in a former tour, I was in no mood to "go over" the +sights again, nor need they be related here, for it is only river travel +and lake sailing that we are concerned with; while reference may be made +to the Guide-books if you wish to hear this sort of thing: "Ulm, lat. +97°, an old Cathedral (_a_) town, on two (§) hills (see Appx.). Pop. +9763; situated [+][+] on the Danube." At that I stop, and +look into the water once more. + +The river is discoloured here,--what is called in Scotland "drumly;" and +this seems partly owing to the tributary _Iller_, which rises in the +Tyrol, and falls into the Danube, a little way above the town. The Iller +has a peculiar air of wild, forlorn bleakness, with its wide channel +half occupied by cold white gravel, and its banks scored and torn, with +weird, broken roots, gnarled trees, bleakness and fallen, all lying +dishevelled; surely in flood times, and of dark wintry nights, a very +deluge boils and seethes along there. + +Then, at last, there are the barges on the Danube, and very rudimental +they are; huge in size, with flat bottoms, and bows and stems cocked up, +and a roofed house in the middle of their sprawling length. The German +boys must have these models before them when they make the Noah's Arks +for English nurseries; and Murray well says of these barges, they are +"nothing better than wooden sheds floating in flat trays." + +In 1839 a steamer was tried here, but it got on a bank, and the effort +was abandoned; so you have to go on to Donauwerth before this mode of +travelling is reached, but from thence you can steam down to the Black +Sea, and the passage boats below Vienna are very fast and well +appointed. + +Rafts there are at Ulm, but we suppose the timber for them comes by the +Iller, for I did not notice any logs descending the upper part of the +Danube. + +Again, there are the public washhouses in the river, each of them a +large floating establishment, with overhanging eaves, under which you +can see, say, fifty women all in a row, half kneeling or leaning over +the low bulwarks, and all slapping your best shirts mercilessly. + +I made straight over to these ladies, and asked how the Rob Roy could +get up so steep a bank, and how far it was to the railway; and so their +senior matron kindly got a man and a hand-cart for the boat, and, as the +company of women heard it was from England, they all talked louder and +more together, and pounded and smacked the unfortunate linen with +additional emphasis. + +The bustle at the railway-station was only half about the canoe; the +other half was for the King of Wurtemburg, who was getting into his +special train to go to his palace at Fredrickshafen. + +Behold me, then, fresh from Gegglingen and snags, in the immediate +presence of Royalty! But this King was not at all kingly, though +decidedly stiff. He is, however, rather amusing sometimes; as when by +his order, issued lately, he compels sentries to salute even empty Royal +carriages. + +I got a newspaper here, and had twelve days to overtake of the world's +doings while we had roamed in hill, forest, and waves. Yet I had been +always asked there to "give the news," and chiefly on two points,--the +Great Eastern, with its electric cable, and the catastrophe on the +Matterhorn glacier, the two being at times vaguely associated, as if +the breaking of the cable in the one had something to do with the loss +of mountaineers in the other. + +So, while I read, the train bore us southwards to Fredrickshafen, the +canoe being charged as baggage three shillings, and patiently submitting +to have a numbered label pasted on its pretty brown face. + +This lively port, on the north side of the Lake of Constance, has a +charming view in front of it well worth stopping to enjoy. It is not +fair to treat it as only a half-hour's town, to be seen while you are +waiting for the lake steamer to take you across to Switzerland. + +But now I come to it for a Sunday's rest (if you wish to travel fast and +far, rest every Sunday), and, as the hotel faced the station, and the +lake faced the hotel, this is the very place to stop in with a canoe. + +So we took the boat upstairs into a loft, where the washerwoman not only +gave room for the well worked timbers of the Rob Roy to be safe and +still, but kindly mended my sails, and sundry other odds and ends of a +wardrobe, somewhat disorganized by rough times. + +Next day there was service in the Protestant church, a fine building, +well filled, and duly guarded by a beadle in bright array. + +The service began by a woman singing "Comfort ye" from Handel, in +exquisite taste and simple style, with a voice that made one forget that +this solemn melody is usually sung by a man. Then a large number of +school children were ranged in the chancel, round a crucifix, and sang a +very beautiful hymn, and next the whole congregation joined in chanting +the psalms in unison, with tasteful feeling and devoutness. A young +German preacher gave us an eloquent sermon, and then the people were +dismissed. + +The afternoon was drummed away by two noisy bands, evidently rivals, and +each determined to excel the other in loudness, while both combined to +persecute the poor visitors who _do_ wish for quietness, at any rate +once a week. I could scarcely escape from this din in a long walk by the +lake, and on coming back found a man bathing by moonlight, while +rockets, squibs, and Catherine wheels were let off in his boat. Better +indeed was it to look with entranced eyes on the far off snowy range, +now lit up by the full harvest moon, and on the sheen of "each +particular star," bright above, and bright again below, in the mirror of +the lake. + +The Lake of Constance is forty-four miles long, and about nine miles +wide. I could not see a ripple there when the Rob Roy was launched at +early morn, with my mind, and body, and soul refreshed, and an eager +longing to begin the tour of Switzerland once more, but now in so new a +fashion. Soon we were far from the shore, and in that middle distance of +the lake where all sides seem equally near, and where the "other side" +appears never to get any nearer as you go on. Here, in the middle, I +rested for a while, and the sensation then was certainly new. Beauty was +everywhere around, and there was full freedom to see it. There was no +cut-and-dry route to be followed, no road, not even a track on the +water, no hours, or time to constrain. I could go right or left by a +stroke of the paddle, and I was utterly my own master of whither to +steer, and where to stop. + +The "pat-a-pat" of a steamer's wheels was the only sound, and that was +very distant, and when the boat came near, the passengers cheered the +canoe, and smiles of (was it not?) envy told of how pleasant and pretty +she looked. After a little wavering in my plans, I settled it was best +to go to the Swiss side, and, after coasting by the villages, I selected +a little inn in a retired bay, and moored my boat, and ordered +breakfast. Here was an old man of eighty-six, landlord and waiter in +one, a venerable man, and I respect age more while growing older. + +He talked with me for five hours while I ate, read, and sketched, and +feasted my eyes on mountain views, and answered vaguely to his remarks, +said in a sleepy way, and in a hot, quiet, basking sun. There are +peaceful and almost dreamy hours of rest in this water tour, and they +are sweet too after hard toil. It is not all rapids and struggles when +you journey with a canoe. + +Close to the inn was the idiot asylum, an old castle with poor demented +women in it. The little flag of my boat attracted their attention, and +all the inmates were allowed to come out and see it, with many smiles of +pleasure, and many odd remarks and gestures. + +Disentangling myself from this strange group, I landed again further +down, and, under a splendid tree, spent an hour or two in carpenter's +work (for I had a few tools on board), to repair the boat's damages and +to brighten her up a bit for the English eyes I must expect in the next +part of the voyage. + +Not a wave had energy to rise on the lake in the hot sun. A sheep-bell +tinkled now and then, but in a tired, listless, and irregular way. A +gossamer spider had spun his web from my mast to the tree above, and +wagtails hopped near me on the stones, and turned an inquiring little +eye to the boat half in the water, and its master reclining on the +grass. It was an easy paddle from this to the town of Constance, at the +end of the lake. + +Here a _douanier_ made a descent upon me and was inexorable. "You _must_ +have the boat examined." "Very well, pray examine it." His Chief was +absent, and I must put the canoe in the Custom-house till to-morrow +morning. An hour was wasted in palaver about this, and at first I +protested vigorously against such absurdity in "free Switzerland." But +Constance is not in Switzerland, it is in the Grand Duchy of Baden, and +so to keep it "grand," they must do very little things, and at any rate +can trouble travellers. At length an obliging native, ashamed of the +proceeding, remonstrated with the douanier, and persuaded him at least +to search the boat and let it pass. + +He took as much time to inspect as if she were a brig of 300 tons, and, +when he came to look at the stern, I gravely pointed to a round hole cut +in the partition for this very purpose! Into this hole he peered, while +the crowd was hushed in silence, and as he saw nothing but darkness, +extremely dark, for (nothing else was there), he solemnly pronounced the +canoe "free," and she was duly borne to the hotel. + +But Constance once had a man in it who was really "grand," John Huss, +the noble martyr for the truth. In the Council Hall you see the +veritable cell in which he was imprisoned some hundreds of years ago, +and on a former visit I had seen, from the tower, through a telescope, +the field where the faggots burned him, and from whence his great soul +leaped up to heaven out of the blazing pile. + + "Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones + Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; + E'en them who kept thy truth so pure of old + When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones." + + --_Milton._ + +Does not a thought or two on such great things make other common things +look small? + +True and good--but we may not stop always in the lake to ponder thus, +for the current is moving again, so let us launch the Rob Roy on our old +friend, the Rhine. + +It is a change to cross a quiet lake after being hurried on a rapid +stream like the Danube, and now it is another change to paddle from the +lake into a wide river like the Rhine, which speeds fast and steady +among lively scenes. The water is deep, and of a faint blue, but clear +enough to show what is below. The pebbly bottom seems to roll towards +you from underneath, and village churches appear to spin quietly round +on the banks, for the land and its things seem to move, not the water, +so glassy its surface steadily flowing. + +Here are the fishers again, slowly paying out their fine-spun nets, and +there is a target-hut built on four piles in the river. + +The target itself is a great cube of wood, say six feet on each side. It +is fired at from another hut perched also on post in the water, and a +"marker" safely placed behind the great block of wood turns it round on +a vertical pivot, and so patches up the bullet-hole, and indicates its +position to those who have fired. + +The Rhine suddenly narrows soon after leaving the Boden See, or Lake +Constance as we call it, but the banks again open out till it is a mile +or two in breadth. Here and there are grassy islands, and you may +notice, by long stakes stuck on the shallows, which tremble as the water +presses them, that the channel for steamers is very roundabout, though +the canoe will skim over any part of it comfortably. Behind each islet +of tall reeds there is a fishing-boat held fast by two poles stuck in +the bottom of the river; or it is noiselessly moving to a more lucky +pool, sculled by the boatman, with his oar at only one side,--rather a +novel plan,--while he pays out the net with his other hand. Rudely-made +barges are afloat, and seem to turn round helplessly in the current of +the deeper parts, or hoist their great square sails in the dead +calm--perhaps for the appearance of the thing--a very picturesque +appearance, as the sail has two broad bands of dark blue cloth for its +centre stripes. But the pointed lateen sail of Geneva is certainly a +more graceful rig than the lug, especially when there are two masts, and +the white sails swell towards you, goosewinged, before a flowing breeze. + +The river has probably a very uneven bottom in this part, for the water +sometimes rushes round in great whirlpools, and strange overturnings of +itself, as if it were boiling from below in exuberant volume with a +gushing upwards; and then again, it wheels about in a circle with a +sweep far around, before it settles to go onward.[XVI.] + + [XVI.] These maelstroms seem at first to demand extra caution as + you approach, but they are harmless enough, for the water is deep, and + it only twists the boat round; and you need not mind this except when + the sail is up, but have a care _then_ that you are not taken aback. In + crossing one of these whirlpools at full speed it will be found needless + to try to counteract the sudden action on your bow by paddling against + it, for it is better to hold on as if there were no interference, and + presently the action in the reverse direction puts all quite straight. + +On the borders of Switzerland the German and French tongues are both +generally known at the hotels, and by the people accustomed to do +business with foreigners travelling among them. + +But in your course along a river these convenient waiters and polyglot +commissionaires are not found exactly in attendance at every village, +and it is, therefore, to the bystanders or casual loungers your +observations must be addressed. + +Frequent intercourse with natives of strange countries, where there is +no common language between them and the tourist, will gradually teach +him a "sign language" which suits all people alike. + +Thus, in any place, no matter what was their dialect, it was always easy +to induce one or two men to aid in carrying the canoe. The _formula_ for +this was something in the following style. + +I first got the boat on shore, and a crowd of course soon collected, +while I arranged its interior, and sponged out the splashed water, and +fastened the cover down. Then, tightening my belt for a walk, I looked +round with a kind smile, and selecting a likely man, would address him +in English deliberately as follows--suiting each action to the word, for +I have always found that sign language is made more natural when you +speak your own tongue all the time you are acting:--"Well now, I think +as you have looked on enough and have seen all you want, it's about time +to go to an hotel, a _gasthaus_. Here! you--yes, _you_!--just take that +end of the boat up, so,--gently, '_langsam!_' '_langsam!_'--all right, +yes, under your arm, like this,--now march off to the best hotel, +_gasthaus_." + +[Illustration: "Langsam."] + +Then the procession naturally formed itself. The most humorous boys of +course took precedence, because of services or mischief willing to be +performed; and, meanwhile, they gratuitously danced about and under the +canoe like Fauns around Silenus. Women only came near and waited +modestly till the throng had passed. The seniors of the place kept on +the safer confines of the movement, where dignity of gait might comport +with close observation. + +In a case of sign talking like the foregoing you can be helped by one +substantive and one adverb; and if you pronounce these clearly, and use +them correctly, while all the other expressions are evidently _your_ +language and not theirs, they will understand it much better than if you +try signs in dumb show or say the whole in bad German, and so give rise +to all possible mistakes of your meaning. + +But it is quite another matter when you have forgotten (or have never +acquired) the foreign word for the noun you wish to name, though, even +then, by well chosen signs, and among an intelligent people, a good deal +can be conveyed, as may be shown in the following cases. + +Once I was riding among the Arabs along the Algerian coast, on my way +from Carthage, and my guide, a dense Kabyle, was evidently taking me +past a place I wished to visit, and which had been duly entered in the +list when he was engaged. + +I could not make him understand this, for my limited Arabic had been +acquired under a different pronunciation in Syria; but one night, it +happened that a clever chief had me in a tent, or rather a hut, just +like the top of a gipsy cart. I explained to him by signs (and talking +English) that the muleteer was taking me past the place it was desired +to see. Then I tried to pronounce the name of that place, but was always +wrong, or he could not make it out; it was Maskutayn, or "bewitched +waters," a wonderful volcanic valley, full of boiling streams and little +volcanoes of salt. + +At length, sitting in the moonlight, signs were tried even for this +difficult occasion. I put my chibouque (pipe) under the sand and took +water in my hand, and as he looked on intently--for the Arabs love this +speaking action--I put water on the fire in the pipe-bowl, and blew it +up through the sand, talking English all the time. This was done again, +and suddenly the black lustrous eyes of the Ishmaelite glistened +brighter. He slapped his forehead. He jumped up. You could almost be +sure he said "I know it now;" and then he roused the unfortunate +muleteer from his snorings to give him an energetic lecture, by means of +which we were directed next day straight to the very place I desired to +find. + +In a few cases of this international talking it becomes necessary to +sketch pictures, which are even better than signs, but not among Arabs. +During a visit to the fair of Nijni Novgorod, in the middle of Russia, I +passed many hours in the "Chinese street" there, and found it was very +difficult to communicate with Ching Loo, and even signs were useless. +But they had some red wax about the tea-chests, and there was a white +wall beside us, so upon this I put the whole story in large pictures, +with an explanatory lecture in English all the time, which proceeding +attracted an audience of several scores of Chinamen and Kalmuks and +other outlandish people, and the particular group I meant to enlighten +seemed perfectly to understand all that was desired. + +And so we suppose that if you can work your paddle well, and learn the +general sign language, and a little of the pencil tongue, you can go +very far in a canoe without being starved or homeless; while you are +sure to have a wide field in which to study the various degrees of +intelligence among those you meet. + +To come back, however, from the Volga to the Rhine. + +The current flows more and more gently as we enter the Zeller See, or +Unter See, a lake which would be called pretty if our taste has not been +sated for a while by having a snowy range for the background to the +views on Constance. + +But the Lake of Constance sadly wants islands, and here in the Zeller +See are several, one of them being of great size. The Emperor of the +French had passed two days at his chateau on this lake, just before we +arrived. No doubt he would have waited a week had he known the Rob Roy +was coming.[XVII.] + + [XVII.] His Majesty has not forgotten the canoe, as will be seen by + the following extract from the Paris intelligence in the "Globe" of + April 20 (His Majesty's birthday):-- + + "By an edict, dated April 6, 1866, issued this morning, the + Ministre d'Etat institutes a special committee for the + organisation of a special exhibition, at the Exposition + Universelle of 1867, of all objects connected with the arts and + industry attached to pleasure boats and river navigation. This + measure is thought to display the importance which amateur + navigation has assumed during the last few years--to display + the honour in which is held this _sport nouveau_, as it is + denominated in the report, and to be successful in abolishing + the old and absurd prejudices which have so long prevented its + development in France. The Emperor, whose fancy for imitating + everything English leads him to patronise with alacrity all + imitation of English sports in particular, is said to have + suggested the present exhibition after reading MacGregor's + 'Cruise of the Rob Roy,' which developes many new ideas of the + purposes besides mere pleasure to which pleasure boats may be + applied, and would be glad to encourage a taste for the + exploration of solitary streams and lonely currents amongst the + youth of France." + +However, as we were too late to breakfast with his Majesty, I pulled in +at the village of Steckborn, where an inn is built on the actual edge of +the water, a state of things most convenient for the aquatic tourist, +and which you find often along this part of the Rhine. In a case of this +sort you can tap at the door with the paddle, and order a repast before +you debark, so that it is boiling and fizzing, and the table is all +ready, while you put things to rights on board, and come leisurely +ashore, and then tie the boat to the window balcony, or, at any rate, in +some place where it can be seen all the time you breakfast or dine, and +rest, and read, and draw. + +Experience proved that very few boys, even of the most mischievous +species, will meddle with a boat which is floating, but that very few +men, even of the most amiable order, will refrain from pulling it about +when the little craft is left on shore. + +To have your boat not only moored afloat but in your sight too,--that is +perfection, and it is worth additional trouble to arrange this, because +then and for hours of the midday stoppage, you will be wholly at ease, +or at any rate, you will have one care the less, the weary resting +traveller will not then be anxious about his absent boat, as if it were +a valuable horse in a strange stable. + +The landlord was much interested in the story of my voyage as depicted +in the sketch-book, so he brought a friend to see me who could speak +French, and who had himself constructed a boat of two tin tubes,[XVIII.] on +which a stage or frame is supported, with a seat and rowlocks, the +oddest looking thing in nautical existence. I persuaded him to put this +institution into the water, and we started for a cruise; the double-tube +metal boat, with its spider-like gear aloft, and the oak canoe, so low +and rakish, with its varnished cedar deck, and jaunty flag, now racing +side by side, each of them a rare sight, but the two together quite +unprecedented. + + [XVIII.] Each of these was in shape like the cigar ship which I had + sailed past on the Thames, and which has since been launched. + +The river here is like parts of the Clyde and the Kyles of Bute, with +French villages let in, and an Italian sky stretched overhead. We rowed +across to a village where a number of Jews live, for I wished to visit +their Synagogue; but, lo! this was the Grand Duchy of Baden land, and a +heavily-armed sentry found us invading the dominion, so he deployed and +formed square to force us to land somewhere else. The man was civil, but +his orders were unreasonable, so we merely embarked again and went over +to Switzerland, and ran our little fleet into a bramble bush, to hide it +while we mounted to an auberge on the hill for a sixpenny bottle of +wine. + +The pretty Swiss lass in charge said she once knew an Englishman--but +"it was a pity they were all so proud." He had sent her a letter in +English, which I asked her to let me read for her. It began, "My dear +little girl, I love you;" and this did not sound so very proud for a +beginning. My boating friend promised to make her a tin _cafetiere_, and +so it may be divined that he was the tinman of the village, and a most +agreeable tinman too. + +She came to see us on board, and her father arrived just in time to +witness a triangular parting, which must have puzzled him a good deal, +Amelia waving farewell to a "proud" Englishman and a nautical +whitesmith, who both took leave also of each other, the last sailing +away with huge square yards and coloured canvas, and the Rob Roy +drifting with the stream in the opposite direction. + +Every day for weeks past had been as a picnic to me, but I prolonged +this one into night, the air was so balmy and the red sun setting was so +soon replaced by the white moon rising, and besides, the navigation here +had no dangers, and there were villages every few miles. + +When I had enough of it, cruising here and there by moonlight, I drew up +to the town of Stein, but all was now lonely by the water-side. This is +to be expected when you arrive late; however, a slap or two on the water +with the paddle, and a loud verse of a song, Italian, Dutch, a pibroch, +any noise in fact, soon draws the idlers to you, and it is precisely the +idlers you want. + +One of them readily helped me with the boat to an inn, where an +excellent landlady greeted the strange guest. From this moment all was +bustle there, and very much it was increased by a German guest, who +insisted on talking to me in English, which I am sure I did not +understand a bit better than the Germans who came to listen and look +on. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Fog--Fancy pictures--Boy soldiers--Boat's billet--Eating--Lake + Zurich--Crinoline--Hot walk--Staring--Lake Zug--Swiss + shots--Fishing Britons--Talk-book. + + +In the morning there was a most curious change of air; all around was in +a dense white fog. Truly it was now to be "sensation rowing;" so we +hastened to get off into this milky atmosphere. I have an idea that we +passed under a bridge; at least the usual cheers sounded this time as if +they were above me, but the mist was as thick as our best November +Cheshire-cheese fogs, and quite as interesting. On several occasions I +positively could not see the bow of my boat, only a few feet from my +nose. The whole arrangement was so unexpected and entirely +novel,--paddling on a fast invisible stream--that I had the liveliest +emotions of pleasure without seeing anything at all. + +But then fancy had free play all the time, and the pictures it drew were +vivid and full of colour, and, after all, our impressions of external +objects are only pictures, so say the philosophers; and why not then +enjoy a tour in a fog, with a good album of pictures making the while in +the brain? + +Sounds too there were, but like those of witches and fairies--though +perhaps it was only the cackling of some antique washerwomen on the +banks. However, I addressed the unseen company in both prose and poetry, +and was full of emphasis, which now and again was increased by my boat +running straight into the shore. + +The clearing away of the fog was one of the most interesting evolutions +of nature to be seen. In one sort or other every traveller has enjoyed +the quick or gradual tearing up of a fog curtain on mountain or moor, +but here it was on a beauteous river. + +I wish to describe this process, but I cannot. It was a series of +"Turner pictures," with glimpses right and left, and far overhead, of +trees, sky, castles, each lightened and shown for a moment, and then +gauzed over again and completely hidden; while the mind had to imagine +all the context of the scenery, and it was sure to be quite wrong when +another gleam of sun disclosed what was there in reality. For it cleared +away at last, and Father Sol avenged himself by an extra hot ray, for +thus trifling with his beams. + +The Rhine banks here were sloping but steep, with pleasant meadows, +vineyards, and woods, mingled with tolerable fairness to all three. In +short, though I appreciate scenery with an eager admiration, any scenery +seemed good when the genial exercise of the canoe was the medium for +enjoying it. + +Soon afterwards the woods thickened, the mountains rose behind them, the +current got faster and faster, the houses, at first dotted on the +knolls, got closer and more suburb like, and at last a grand sweep of +the stream opened up Schaffhausen to the eye, while a sullen sound on +the water warned of "rapids ahead." As I intended to keep them always in +front, some caution was needed in steering, though there is no +difficulty here, for steamboats navigate thus far, and of course it is +easy for a canoe. + +But when I glided down to the bridge there was the "Goldenen Schiff" +hotel, and I resolved to patronise it on account of its name, and +because there was a gigantic picture of a Briton on the adjoining wall. +He was in full Highland costume, though the peculiar tartan of his kilt +showed that there is still one clan we have not yet recognised. + +Here began a novel kind of astonishment among the people; for when, on +my arrival, they asked, "Where have you come from?" and were told, +"From England," they could not understand how my course seemed as if in +reality from Germany. + +The short morning's work being soon over, there was all the day before +me to wander about. + +Drums and a band presently led me to a corps of little boys in full +uniform, about 200 of them, all with real guns and with boy officers, +most martial to behold, albeit they were munching apples between the +words of command, and pulling wry faces at urchins of eight years old, +who strove in vain to take long steps with short legs. + +They had some skirmishing drill, and used small goats' horns to give the +orders instead of bugles. These horns are used on the railways too, and +the note is very clear, and may be heard well a long way off. Indeed I +think much might be done in our drill at home by something of this sort. + +It is a short three miles to the Belle Vue, built above the falls of +Schaffhausen, and in full view of this noble scene. These great falls of +the Rhine looked much finer than I had recollected them some twelve +years before; it is pleasant, but unusual, for one's second visit to +such sights to be more striking than the first. At night the river was +splendidly illuminated by Bengal lights of different colours, and the +effect of this on the tossing foam and rich full body of ever pouring +water--or fire as it then seemed to be--was to present a spectacle of +magical beauty and grandeur, well seen from the balcony of the hotel, by +many travellers from various lands. On one side of me was a Russian, and +a Brazilian on the other. + +Next day, at the railway-station, I put the sharp bow of the Rob Roy in +at the window of the "baggages" office, and asked for the "boat's +ticket." The clerk did not seem at all surprised, for he knew I was an +Englishman, and nothing is too odd, queer, mad in short, for Englishmen +to do. + +But the porters, guards, and engine-drivers made a good deal of talk +before the canoe was safely stowed among the trunks in the van; and I +now and then visited her there, just for company's sake, and to see that +the sharp-cornered, iron-bound boxes of the American tourists had not +broken holes in her oaken skin. One could not but survey, with some +anxiety, the lumbering casks on the platform, waiting to be rolled in +beside the canoe; and the fish baskets, iron bars, crates, and clumsy +gear of all sorts, which at every stoppage is tumbled in or roughly +shovelled out of the luggage-van of a train. + +This care and sympathy for a mere boat may be called enthusiasm by +those who have not felt the like towards inanimate objects linked to our +pleasures or pains by hourly ties of interest; but others will +understand how a friendship for the boat was felt more every day I +journeyed with her: her strong points were better known as they were +more tried, but the weak points, too, of the frail traveller became now +more apparent, and the desire to bring her safely to England was rapidly +increased when we had made the homeward turn. + +The mere cost of the railway ticket for the boat's carriage to Zurich +was two or three shillings,--not so much as the expense of taking it +between the stations and the hotels. + +Submitting, then, to be borne again on wheels and through tunnels in the +good old railway style, we soon arrive among the regular Swiss +mountains, and where gather the Swiss tourists, for whom arise the Swiss +hotels, those huge establishments founded and managed so as best to +fatten on the wandering Englishman, and to give him homoeopathic +feeding while his purse is bled. + +For suffer me again to have a little gossip about _eating_. Yes, it is a +mundane subject, and undoubtedly physical; but when the traveller has to +move his body and baggage along a route by his own muscles, by climbing +or by rowing, or by whipping a mule, it is a matter of high moment, to +him at least, that fibrine should be easily procurable. + +If you wish, then, to live well in Switzerland and Germany go to German +hotels, and avoid the grand barracks reared on every view-point for the +English tourist. + +See how the omnibus, from the train or the steamer, pours down its +victims into the landlords' arms. Papa and Mamma, and three daughters +and a maid: well, of course _they_ will be attended to. Here is another +timid lady with an alpenstock, a long white cane people get when they +arrive in Switzerland, and which they never know what on earth to do +with. Next there will issue from the same vehicle a dozen newly-fledged +Londoners; and the whole party, men and women, are so demure, so afraid +of themselves, that the hotel-keeper does just what he likes with them, +every one. + +Without a courier, a wife, heavy baggage, or young ladies, I enter too, +and dare to order a cutlet and potatoes. After half-an-hour two chops +come and spinach, each just one bite, and cold. I ask for fruit, and +some pears are presented that grate on the knife, with a minute bunch of +grapes, good ones let us acknowledge. For this we pay 2_s._ + +Next day I row three miles down the lake, and order, just as before, a +cutlet, potatoes, and fruit, but this time at a second-rate German inn. +Presently behold two luscious veal cutlets, with splendid potatoes, and +famous hot plates; and a fruit-basket teeming gracefully with large +clusters of magnificent grapes, peaches, pears all gushing with juice, +and mellow apples, and rosy plums. For this I pay 1_s._ 6_d._ The secret +is that the Germans won't pay the prices which the English fear to +grumble at, and won't put up with the articles the English fear to +refuse. + +Nor may we blame the hotel-keepers for their part in this business. They +try to make as much money as they can, and most people who are making +money try to do the same. + +In the twilight the Rob Roy launched on the Lake of Zurich, so lovely by +evening, cool and calm, with its pretty villages painted again on the +water below, and soft voices singing, and slow music floating in the +air, as the moon looked down, and the crests of snow were silvered on +far-off hills. + +The canoe was now put up in a boathouse where all seemed to be secure. +It was the only time I had found a boathouse for my boat, and the only +time when she was badly treated; for, next morning, though the man in +charge appeared to be a solid, honest fellow, I saw at once that the +canoe had been sadly tumbled about and filled with water, the seat cast +off and floating outside, the covering deranged, the sails untied, and +the sacred paddle defiled by clumsy hands. + +The man who suffered this to be perpetrated will not soon forget the +Anglo-German-French set-down he received (with a half-franc), and I +shall not forget in future to observe the time-honoured practice of +carrying the canoe invariably into the hotel. + +Another piece of experience gained here was this, that to send your +luggage on by a steamer, intending to regain it on your arrival, adds +far less of convenience than it does of anxiety and trouble, seeing that +in this sort of travel you can readily take the baggage with you always +and everywhere in your boat. + +Much of the charm of next day's paddle on the lake consisted in its +perfect independence of all previous arrangements, and in the absence of +such thraldom as, "You must be here by ten o'clock;" or, "You have to +sleep there at night." So now, let the wind blow as it likes, I could +run before it, and breakfast at this village; or cross to that point to +bathe; or row round that bay, and lunch on the other side of the lake, +or anywhere else on the shore, or in the boat itself, as I pleased. I +felt as a dog must feel on his travels who has no luggage and no +collar, and has only one coat, which always fits him, and is always +getting new. + +When quite sated with the water, I fixed on Horgen to stop at for a +rest, to the intense delight of all the Horgen boys. How they did jump +and caper about the canoe, and scream with the glee of young hearts +stirred by a new sight! + +It was one of the great treats of this voyage to find it gave such hours +of pleasure to the juvenile population in each place. Along the vista of +my recollection as I think over the past days of this excursion, many +thousand childish faces brimming with happiness range their chubby or +not chubby cheeks. + +These young friends were still more joyous when the boat was put into a +cart, and the driver got up beside it, and the captain of the canoe +began his hot walk behind. + +A number of their mammas came out to smile on the performance, and some +asked to have a passage to England in the boat, to which there was the +stock reply, given day by day, "Not much room for the crinoline." Only +once was there the rejoinder, that the lady would willingly leave her +expansion at home; though on another occasion (and that in France, too) +they answered, "We poor folks don't wear crinoline." + +In every group there were various forms of inquisitiveness about the +canoe. First, those who examined it without putting questions; and then +those who questioned about it without examining. Some lifted it to feel +the weight; others passed their hands along its smooth deck to feel the +polished cedar; others looked underneath to see if there was a keel, or +bent the rope to feel how flexible it was, or poised the paddle (when I +let them), and said, "How light!" and then more critical inquirers +measured the boat's dimensions, tapped its sides with their knuckles, +and looked wise; sketched its form, scrutinized its copper nails, or +gently touched the silken flag, with its frayed hem and colour fading +now; in all places this last item, as an object of interest, was always +the first exclaimed about by the lady portion of the crowd. + +It is with such little but pleasant trivialities that a traveller's day +may be filled in this enchanting atmosphere where simply to exist, to +breathe, to gaze, and to listen, are enough to pass the sunny hours, if +not to engage the nobler powers of the mind. + +The Lakes of Zurich and Zug are not far separate. About three hours of +steady road walking takes you from one to the other, over a high neck of +forest land, and a hot walk this was from twelve to three o'clock, in +the brightest hours of the day. The heat and the dust made me eager +again to be afloat. By the map, indeed, it seemed as if one could row +part of this way on a river which runs into Zug, but maps are no +guidance as to the fitness of streams for a boat. They make a black line +wriggling about on the paper do for all rivers alike, and this tells you +nothing as to the depth or force of the current, nor can the drivers or +innkeepers tell much more, since they have no particular reason for +observing how a river comports itself; their business is on the road. + +The driver was proud of his unusual fare, a boat with an English flag, +and he gave a short account of it to every friend he met, an account no +doubt frightfully exaggerated, but always accepted as sufficient by the +gratified listener. The worthy carter, however, was quite annoyed that I +stopped him outside the town of Zug (paying thirteen francs for the +cart), for I wished to get the canoe into the water unobserved, as the +morning's work had left me yet no rest, and sweet repose could best be +had by floating in my boat. However, there was no evading the +townspeople's desire to see "the schiff in a cart from England." We took +her behind a clump of stones, but they climbed upon the stones and +stood. I sat down in a moody silence, but they sat down too in +respectful patience. I tried then another plan, turned the canoe bottom +upward, and began lining a seam of the planks with red putty. They +looked on till it was done, and I began the same seam again, and told +them that all the other seams must be thus lined. This, at last, was too +much for some of the wiser ones, who turned away and murmured about my +slowness, but others at once took their places in the front row. It +seemed unfriendly to go on thus any longer, and as it was cooler now, I +pushed the boat into the lake, shipped my luggage on board, and after +the usual English speech to them all from the water, bid every one +"adieu."[XIX.] + + [XIX.] This word, like other expressive French words, is commonly + used in Germany and Switzerland. + +New vigour came when once the paddle was grasped again, and the soft +yielding water and gentle heaving on its bosom had fresh pleasure now +after the dusty road. It seems as if one must be for ever spoiled for +land travel by this smooth liquid journeying. + +Zug is a little lake, and the mountains are over it only at one end, but +then there are glorious hills, the Rigi and a hundred more, each behind +another, or raising a peak in the gaps between. I must resolutely +abstain from describing these here. The sight of them is well known to +the traveller. The painted pictures of them in every shop window are +faithful enough for those who have not been nearer, and words can tell +very little to others of what is seen and felt when you fill the +delighted eye by looking on the snowy range. + +Near one end of the lake I visited the line of targets where the +Switzers were popping away their little bullets at their short ranges, +with all sorts of gimcrack instruments to aid them, lenses, crooks, and +straps for the arms, hair-triggers, and everything done under cover too. +Very skilful indeed are they in the use of these contrivances; but the +weapons look like toy-guns after all, and are only one step removed from +the crossbows you see in Belgium and France, where men meet to shoot at +stuffed cockrobins fixed on a pole, and do not hit them, and then +adjourn for beer. + +The Swiss are good shots and brave men, and woe be to their invaders. +Still, in this matter of rifle shooting their _dilettanti_ practice +through a window, at the short range of 200 yards, seems really childish +when compared with that of the manly groups at Wimbledon, where, on the +open heath, in sun or drifting hail, the burly Yorkshireman meets with +the hardy Scot, and sends his heavier deadly bullet on its swift errand +right away for a thousand yards in the storm. + +Leaving the shooters to their bulls' eyes, I paddled in front of the +town to scan the hotels, and to judge of the best by appearances. Out +came the boats of Zug to examine the floating stranger. They went round +and round, in a criticising mood, just as local dogs strut slowly in +circles about a new-come cur who is not known to their street, and +besides is of ambiguous breed. These boats were all larger than mine, +and most of them were brighter with plenty of paint, and universally +they were encumbered with most awkward oars. + +A courteous Frenchman in one of the boats told me all the Zug news in a +breath, besides asking numerous questions, and giving a hasty commentary +on the fishing in the lake. Finally, he pointed out the best hotel, and +so the naval squadron advanced to the pier, led by the canoe. A gracious +landlady here put my boat safe in the hotel coachhouse, and offered to +give me the key of the padlock, to make sure. In the _salle à manger_ +were some English friends from London, so now I felt that here was an +end of lone wanderings among foreigners, for the summer stream of +tourists from England was encountered at this point. + +An early start next morning found the mists on the mountains, but they +were quickly furled up out of the way in festoons like muslin curtains. + +We skirted the pretty villas on the verge of the lake, and hauled in by +some apple-trees to rig up the sails. This could be done more easily +when the boat was drawn ashore than when it was afloat; though, after +practice, I could not only set the mast and hoist the sails "at sea," +but could even stand up and change my coat, or tie the flag on the +masthead, or survey a difficult channel, while the boat was rocking on +the waves of a rapid.[XX.] + + [XX.] This is so very useful in extending the horizon of view, + and in enabling you to examine a whole ledge of sunken rocks at once, + that it is well worth the trouble of a week or two's practice. + +Sailing on a lake in Switzerland is a full reward for carrying your mast +and sails unused for many a long mile. Sometimes, indeed, the sails +seemed to be after all an encumbrance, but this was when they were not +available. Every time they came into use again the satisfaction of +having brought them was reassured. + +In sailing while the wind is light you need not always sit, as must be +done for paddling. Wafted by the breeze you can now recline, lie down, +or lie up, put your legs anyhow and anywhere, in the water if you like, +and the peak of the sail is a shade between the sun and your eyes, +while the ripples seem to tinkle cheerfully against the bow, and the +wavelets seethe by smoothly near the stern. When you are under sail the +hill tops look higher than before, for now you see how far they are +above your "lofty" masthead, and the black rocks on the shore look +blacker when seen in contrast with a sail like cream. + +[Illustration: "Sailing on Lake Zug."] + +After a cruise that left nothing more to see of Zug, we put into port at +Imyn, and though it is a little place, only a few houses, the boys there +were as troublesome as gnats buzzing about; so the canoe had to be +locked in the stable out of sight. + +Three Britons were waiting here for the steamer. They had come to fish +in Switzerland. Now fishing and travelling kill each other, so far as my +experience goes, unless one of them is used as a _passetemps_ because +you cannot go on with the other. Thus I recollect once at the town of +Vossevangen, in Norway, when we had to wait some hours for horses, it +was capital fun to catch three trout with a pin for a hook fastened on +the lash of a gig-whip, while a fellow-traveller shot with a pistol at +my Glengarry cap on a stone. + +The true fisherman fishes for the fishing, not for the fishes. He +himself is pleased even if he catches nothing, though he is more pleased +to bring back a full basket, for that will justify him to his friends. + +Now when you stop your travelling that you may angle, if you catch +nothing you grudge the day spent, and keep thinking how much you might +have seen in it on the road. On the other hand, if you do happen to +catch one or two fish, you don't like to leave the place where more +might be taken, and your first ten miles after departure from it is a +stage of reflection about pools, stones, bites, and rises, instead of +what is going on all around. Worst of all, if you have hooked a fish and +lost him, it is a sad confession of defeat then to give up the sport and +moodily resume the tour. + +As for the three visitors at Imyn, they had just twenty minutes sure, so +they breakfasted in five minutes, and in the next three minutes had got +their rods ready, and were out in the garden casting as fast as +possible, and flogging the water as if the fish also ought to be in a +hurry to get taken. The hot sun blazed upon the bald head of one of +these excited anglers, for he had not time to put on his hat. The other +had got his line entangled in a bush, and of course was _hors de +combat_. The third was a sort of light skirmisher, rushing about with +advice, and pointing out shoals of minnows everywhere else but where his +companions were engaged. However, they managed to capture a few monsters +of the deep, that is to say, a couple of misguided gudgeons, probably +dissipated members of their tribe, and late risers, who had missed +their proper breakfasts. Ardent as I am with the rod I could not enjoy +fishing after this sort. + +To be in this tide of wandering Britons, and yet to look at them and +listen to them as if you were distinct--this is a post full of interest +and amusement; and if you can, even for one day, try to be (at least in +thought) a Swiss resident or a Parisian, and so to regard the English +around you from the point they are seen from by the foreigners whom they +visit, the examination becomes far more curious. But this has been done +by many clever tourists, who have written their notes with more or less +humour, and with more rather than less severity; so I shall not attempt +to analyse the strange atoms of the flood from our islands which +overflows the Continent every year. + +It is the fashion to decry three-fourths of this motley company as +"snobs," "spendthrifts," or "greenhorns." With humble but firm voice I +protest against this unfairness; nor can I help thinking that much of +the hard criticism published by travellers against their fellows is a +crooked way of saying, what it does not do to assert directly, that the +writer has at any rate met some travellers inferior to himself. + +Of course, among the Englishmen whom I met now and then in the course +of this voyage there were some strange specimens, and their remarks were +odd enough, when alluding to the canoe. One said, for example, "Don't +you think it would have been more commodious to have had an attendant +with you to look after your luggage and things?" The most obvious answer +to this was probably that which I gave, "Not for me, if he was to be in +the boat; and not for him, if he had to run on the bank." + +Another Englishman at home asked me in all seriousness about the canoe +voyage, "Was it not a great waste of time?" And when I inquired how _he_ +had spent his vacation, he said, "Oh, I was all the time _at Brighton_!" + +In returning once more to English conversation, one is reminded how very +useless and unpractical are all the "Talk-books" published to facilitate +the traveller's conversation in foreign languages. Whether they are +meant to help you in French, German, Italian, or Spanish, these little +books, with their well-known double columns of words and phrases, and +their "Polite Letter-writer" at the end, all seem to be equally +determined to force words upon you which you never will need to use; +while the things you are always wanting to say in the new tongue are +either carefully buried among colloquies on botany or precious stones, +or among philosophical discussions about metaphysics, or else the +desirable phrases are not in the book at all. + +This need of a brief and good "Talk-book" struck me particularly when I +had carefully marked in my German one all the pages which would never be +required in the tour, so that I could cut them out as an unnecessary +addition to the weight of my ship's library. Why, the little book, when +thus expurgated, got so lamentably thin that the few pages left of it, +as just possible to be useful, formed only a wretched skeleton of the +original volume. + +Another fault of these books is that half the matter in them is made up +of what the imaginary chatting foreigner says _to you_, the unhappy +Englishman, and this often in long phrases, or even in set speeches. + +But when, in actual life, the real foreigner speaks to you, he somehow +says quite a different set of words from any particular phrases you see +in the book, and you cannot make out his meaning, because it does not +correspond with anything you have learned. + +It is evident that a dictionary is required to get at the English +meaning of what is said to you by another; while a talk-book will +suffice for what you wish to say to him; because you can select in it +and compose from it before you utter any particular phrase. + +The Danish phrase-book for Norway and Sweden is a tolerably good one, +and it holds in a short compass all the traveller wants; but I think a +book of this kind for each of the other principal languages might well +be constructed on the following basis. + +First, let us have the expression "I want," and then the English +substantives most used in travel talk, arranged in alphabetical order, +and with their foreign equivalents. Next, put the request "Will you," +and after it place each of the verbs of action generally required by +travellers. Then set forth the question, "Does the," with a column of +events formed by a noun, verb, and preposition in each, such as "coach +stop at," "road lead to," "steamer start from," &c.; and, lastly, give +us the comprehensive "Is it," with a long alphabetical list of +adjectives likely to be employed. Under these four heads, with two pages +of adverbs and numerals, I think that the primary communications with a +foreigner can be comprised; and as for conversations with him on special +subjects, such as politics, or art, or scenery, these are practically +not likely to be attempted unless you learn his language, and not merely +some of its most necessary _words_; but this study of language is not +the purpose for which you get a talk-book. + +Having now delivered a homily on international talking, it is time to be +on the move again. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Sailing on Lucerne--Seeburg--River scenes--Night and snow--The + Reuss--A dear dinner--Seeing a rope--Passing a fall--Bremgarten + rapids. + + +When the steamer at Imyn had embarked the three sportsmen, and the +little pier was quiet, we got a cart out for the Rob Roy, and bargained +to have it rumbled over the hill to the Lake of Lucerne for the sum of +five francs--it is only half-an-hour's walk. The landlord himself came +as driver, for he was fully interested about the canoe, and he did not +omit to let people know his sentiments on the subject all along the way, +even calling out to the men plucking fruit in the apple-trees, who had +perhaps failed to notice the phenomenon which was passing on the road +beneath them. There was a permanent joke on such occasions, and, oddly +enough, it was used by the drivers in Germany as well as in Switzerland, +and was of course original and spontaneous with each of them as they +called out, "Going to America!" and then chuckled at the brilliant +remark. + +The village we came to on Lucerne was the well-known Kussnacht, that +is, _one_ of the well-known Kussnachts, for there are plenty of these +honeymoon towns in Central Europe; and with the customary assembly of +_quidnuncs_, eloquently addressed this time by the landlord-driver, the +canoe was launched on another lake, perhaps the prettiest lake in the +world. + +Like other people, and at other times, I had traversed this beautiful +water of the Four Cantons, but those only who have seen it well by +steamer and by walking, so as to know how it juts in and winds round in +intricate geography, can imagine how much better you may follow and +grasp its beauties by searching them out alone and in a canoe. + +For thus I could penetrate all the wooded nooks, and dwell on each +view-point, and visit the rocky islets, and wait long, longer--as long +as I pleased before some lofty berg, while the ground-swell gently +undulated, and the passing cloud shaded the hill with grey, and the red +flag of a steamer fluttered in a distant sunbeam, and the plash of a +barge's oar broke on the boatman's song; everything around changing just +a little, and the stream of inward thought and admiration changing too +as it flowed, but, all the time, and when the eye came back to it again, +there was the grand mountain still the same, + + "Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremoved." + +How cool the snow looked up there aloft even in the heat of summer! and, +to come down again to one's level on the water, how lively the steamer +was with the music of its band and the quick beat of its wheels curling +up white foam. Let us speed to meet it and to get a tossing in the +swell, while Jones and Smith, under the awning, cry out, "Why, to be +sure, that's the Rob Roy canoe," and Mrs. Jones and the three Miss +Smiths all lift up their heads from their "Murrays," where they have +been diligently reading the history of Switzerland from A.D. 1682, and +then the description in words of all the scenery around, although they +have suffered its speaking realities in mountain, wood, and lake to pass +unnoticed. + +As I was quite fresh (having worked chiefly the sails on Zug) and now in +good "training," so as to get on very comfortably with ten or twelve +hours' rowing in the day, I spent it all in seeing this inexhaustible +Lake of Lucerne, and yet felt that at least a dozen new pictures had +been left unseen in this rich volume of the book of nature. + +But as this book had no page in it about quarters for the night it was +time to consider these homely affairs, and to look out for an hotel; not +one of the big barracks for Englishmen spoken of before, but some quiet +place where one could stop for Sunday. Coming suddenly then round a +shady point, behold the very place! But can it be an hotel? Yes, there +is the name, "Seeburg." Is it quiet? Observe the shady walks. Bathing? +Why, there is a bath in the lake at the end of the garden. Fishing? At +least four rods are stretched over the reeds by hopeful hands, and with +earnest looks behind, watching for the faintest nibble. + +Let us run boldly in. Ten minutes, and the boat is safely in a shed, and +its captain well housed in an excellent room; and, having ordered +dinner, it was delicious to jump into the lake for a swim, all hot with +the hot day's work, and to stretch away out to the deep, and circle +round and round in these limpid waters, with a nice little bath-room to +come back to, and fresh dry clothes to put on. In the evening we had +very pretty English music, a family party improvised in an hour, and +broken up for a moonlight walk, while, all this time (one fancied), in +the big hotel of the town the guests were in stiff _coteries_, or each +set retired to its sitting-room, and lamenting how unsociable everybody +else had become. + +I never was more comfortable than here, with a few English families "en +pension," luxuriating for the sum of six francs per day, and an old +Russian General, most warlike and courteous, who would chat with you by +the hour, on the seat under the shady chestnut, and smiled at the four +persevering fishermen whose bag consisted, I believe, of three bites, +one of them allowed on all hands to have been _bonâ fide_. + +Then on Sunday we went to Lucerne, to church, where a large congregation +listened to a very good sermon from the well-known Secretary of the +Society for Colonial and Continental Churches. At least every traveller, +if not every home-stayed Englishman, ought to support this Association, +because it many times supplies just that food and rest which the soul +needs so much on a Sunday abroad, when the pleasures of foreign travel +are apt to make only the mind and body constitute the man. + +I determined to paddle from Lucerne by the river Reuss, which flows out +of the lake and through the town. This river is one of four--the Rhine, +Rhone, Reuss, and Ticino, which all rise near together in the +neighbourhood of the St. Gothard; and yet, while one flows into the +German ocean, another falls into the Mediterranean, both between them +having first made nearly the compass of Switzerland. + +The walking tourist comes often upon the rapid Reuss as it staggers and +tumbles among the Swiss mountains. To me it had a special interest, for +I once ascended the Galenhorn over the glaciers it starts from, and with +only a useless guide, who lost his head and then lost his way, and then +lost his temper and began to cry. We groped about in a fog until snow +began to fall, and the snowstorm lasted for six hours--a weary time +spent by us wandering in the dark and without food. At length we were +discovered by some people sent out with lights to search for the +benighted pleasure-seeker. + +The Reuss has many cascades and torrent gorges as it runs among the +rough crags, and it falls nearly 6,000 feet before it reaches the Lake +of Lucerne, this lake itself being still 1,400 feet above the sea. + +A gradual current towards the end of the lake entices you under the +bridge where the river starts again on its course, at first gently +enough, and as if it never could get fierce and hoarse-voiced when it +has taken you miles away into the woods and can deal with you all alone. + +The map showed the Reuss flowing into the Aar, but I could learn nothing +more about either of these rivers, except that an intelligent man said, +"The Reuss is a mere torrent," while another recounted how a man some +years ago went on the Aar in a boat, and was taken up by the police and +punished for thus perilling his life. + +Deducting from these statements the usual 50 per cent. for exaggeration, +everything appeared satisfactory, so I yielded my boat to the current, +and, at parting, waved my yellow paddle to certain fair friends who had +honoured me with their countenance, and who were now assembled on the +bridge. After this a few judicious strokes took the Rob Roy through the +town and past the pleasant environs, and we were now again upon running +water. + +The current, after a quiet beginning, soon put on a sort of "business +air," as if it did not mean to dally, and rapidly got into quick time, +threading a devious course among the woods, hayfields, and vineyards, +and it seemed not to murmur (as streams always do), but to sing with +buoyant exhilaration in the fresh brightness of the morn. + +It certainly was a change, from the sluggish feeling of dead water in +the lakes to the lively tremulous thrilling of a rapid river like the +Reuss, which, in many places, is as wide as the Rhine at Schaffhausen. +It is a wild stream, too fast for navigation, and therefore the villages +are not built on the banks, and there are no boats, and the lonely, +pathless, forest-covered banks are sometimes bleak enough when seen from +the water. + +For some miles it was easy travelling, the water being seldom less than +two feet deep, and with rocks readily visible by the eddy bubbling about +them, because they were sharp and jagged. It is the long smooth and +round-topped rock which is most treacherous in a fast river, for the +spray which the current throws round such a rock is often not different +from an ordinary wave. + +Now and then the stream was so swift that I was afraid of losing my +straw hat, simply from the breeze created by great speed--for it was a +day without wind. + +It cannot be concealed that continuous physical enjoyment such as this +tour presented is a dangerous luxury if it be not properly used. When I +thought of the hospitals of London, of the herds of squalid poor in +foetid alleys, of the pale-faced ragged boys, and the vice, sadness, +pain, and poverty we are sent to do battle with if we be Christian +soldiers, I could not help asking, "Am I right in thus enjoying such +comfort, such scenery, such health?" Certainly not right, unless to get +vigour of thought and hand, and freshened energy of mind, and larger +thankfulness and wider love, and so, with all the powers recruited, to +enter the field again more eager and able to be useful. + +In the more lonely parts of the Reuss the trees were in dense thickets +to the water's edge, and the wild ducks fluttered out from them with a +splash, and some larger birds like bustards often hovered over the +canoe. I think among the flying companions I noticed also the bunting, +or "ammer" (from which German word comes our English "yellow hammer"), +wood-pigeons, and very beautiful hawks. The herons and kingfishers were +here as well, but not so many of them as on the Danube. + +Nothing particular occurred, although it was a pleasant morning's work, +until we got through the bridge at Imyl, where an inn was high up on the +bank. The ostler helped me to carry the boat into the stable, and the +landlady audaciously charged me 4_s._ 6_d._ for my first dinner (I +always had two dinners on full working days), being pretty sure that she +need not expect her customer to stop there again. + +The navigation after this began to be more interesting, with gravel +banks and big stones to avoid, and a channel to be chosen from among +several, and the wire ropes of the ferries stretched tightly across the +river requiring to be noticed with proper respect. + +You may have observed how difficult it is, sometimes, to see a rope when +it is stretched and quite horizontal, or at any rate how hard it is to +judge correctly of its distance from your eye. This can be well noticed +in walking by the seashore among fishing-boats moored on the beach, when +you will sometimes even knock your nose against a taut hawser before you +are aware that it is so close. + +This is caused by the fact that the mind estimates the distance of an +object partly by comparing the two views of its surface obtained by the +two eyes respectively, and which views are not quite the same, but +differ, just as the two pictures prepared for the stereoscope. Each eye +sees a little round one side of the object, and the solid look of the +object and its distance are thus before the mind. + +Now when the rope is horizontal the eyes do not see round the two sides +in this manner, though if the head is leant sideways it will be found +that the illusion referred to no longer appears. + +Nor is it out of place to inquire thus at length into this matter, for I +can assure you that one or two blunt slaps on the head from these ropes +across a river make it at least interesting if not pleasant to examine +"the reason why." And now we have got the philosophy of the thing, let +us leave the ropes behind. + +The actual number of miles in a day's work is much influenced by the +number of waterfalls or artificial barriers which are too dry or too +high to allow the canoe to float over them. + +[Illustration: "Shirking a Fall."] + +In all such cases, of course, I had to get out and to drag the boat +round by the fields, as has been already described (p. 80); or to lower +her carefully among the rocks, as is shown in the accompanying sketch, +which represents the usual appearance of this part of the day's +proceedings. Although this sort of work was a change of posture, and +brought into play new muscular action, yet the strain sometimes put on +the limbs by the weight of the boat, and the great caution required +where there was only slippery footing, made these barriers to be +regarded on the whole as bores. + +Full soon however we were to forget such trifling troubles, for more +serious work impended. + +The river banks suddenly assumed a new character. They were steep and +high, and their height increased as we advanced between the two upright +walls of stratified gravel and boulders. + +A full body of water ran here, the current being of only ordinary force +at its edges, where it was interrupted by rocks, stones, and shingle, +and was thus twisted into eddies innumerable. + +To avoid these entanglements at the sides, it seemed best, on the whole, +to keep the boat in mid-channel, though the breakers were far more +dangerous there, in the full force of the stream. + +I began to think that this must be the "hard place coming," which a wise +man farther up the river had warned me was quite too much for so small a +boat, unless in flood times, when fewer rocks would be in the way. In +reply, I had told him that when we got near such a place I would pull +out my boat and drag it along the bank, if requisite. To this he said, +"Ah! but the banks are a hundred feet high." So I had mentally resolved +(but entirely forgot) to stop in good time and to climb up the rocks and +investigate matters ahead before going into an unknown run of broken +water. + +Such plans are very well in theory, but somehow the approach to these +rapids was so gradual, and the mind was so much occupied in overcoming +the particular difficulty of each moment, that no opportunity occurred +for rest or reflection. The dull heavy roar round the corner got louder +as the Rob Roy neared the great bend. For here the river makes a turn +round the whole of a letter S, in fact very nearly in a complete figure +of 8, and in wheeling thus it glides over a sloping ledge of flat rocks, +spread obliquely athwart the stream for a hundred feet on either hand, +and just a few inches below the surface. + +The canoe was swept over this singular place by the current, its keel +and sides grinding and bumping on the stones, and sliding on the soft +moss which here made the rock so slippery and black. + +The progress was aided by sundry pushes and jerks at proper times, but +we advanced altogether in a clumsy, helpless style, until at length +there came in sight the great white ridge of tossing foam where the din +was great, and a sense of excitement and confusion filled the mind. + +I was quite conscious that the sight before me was made to look worse +because of the noise around, and by the feeling of the loneliness and +powerlessness of a puny man struggling in a waste of breakers, where to +strike a single one was sure to upset the boat. + +From the nature of the place, too, it was evident that it would be +difficult to save the canoe by swimming alongside it when capsized or +foundered, and yet it was utterly impossible now to stop. + +Right in front, and in the middle, I saw the well-known wave which is +always raised when a main stream converges, as it rushes down a narrow +neck. The depression or trough of this was about two feet below, and the +crest four feet above the level, so the height of the wave was about six +feet. + +Though rather tall it was very thin and sharp-featured, and always +stationary in position, though the water composing it was going at a +tremendous pace. After this wave there was another smaller one, as +frequently happens. + +It was not the _height_ of the wave that gave any concern; had it been +at sea the boat would rise over any lofty billow, but here the wave +stood still, and the canoe was to be impelled against it with all the +force of a mighty stream, and so it _must_ go through the body of water, +for it could not have time to rise. + +And so the question remained, "What is _behind_ that wave?" for if it is +a rock then this is the last hour of the Rob Roy.[XXI.] + + [XXI.] I had not then acquired the knowledge of a valuable fact, + that a sharp wave of this kind _never_ has a rock behind it. A sharp + wave requires free water at its rear, and it is therefore in the safest + part of the river so far as concealed dangers are concerned. This at + least was the conclusion come to after frequent observation afterwards + of many such places. + +The boat plunged headlong into the shining mound of water as I clenched +my teeth and clutched my paddle. We saw her sharp prow deeply buried, +and then (I confess) my eyes were shut involuntarily, and before she +could rise the mass of solid water struck me with a heavy blow full in +the breast, closing round my neck as if cold hands gripped me, and quite +taking away my breath.[XXII.] + + [XXII.] See a faithful representation of this incident, so far as + relates to the water, in the Frontispiece. + +Vivid thoughts coursed through the brain in this exciting moment, but +another slap from the lesser wave, and a whirl round in the eddy below, +told that the battle was over soon, and the little boat slowly rose from +under a load of water, which still covered my arms, and then, trembling, +and as if stunned by the heavy shock, she staggered to the shore. The +river too had done its worst, and it seemed now to draw off from +hindering us, and so I clung to a rock to rest for some minutes, panting +with a tired thrilling of nervousness and gladness strangely mingled. + +Although the weight of water had been so heavy on my body and legs, very +little of it had got inside under the waterproof covering, for the whole +affair was done in a few seconds, and though everything in front was +completely drenched up to my necktie, the back of my coat was scarcely +wet. Most fortunately I had removed the flag from its usual place about +an hour before, and thus it was preserved from being swept away. + +Well, now it is over, and we are rested, and begin with a fresh start; +for there is still some work to do in threading a way among the +breakers. The main point, however, has been passed, and the difficulties +after it look small, though at other times they might receive attention. + +Here is our resting-place, the old Roman town of Bremgarten, which is +built in a hollow of this very remarkable serpent bend of the rapid +Reuss. The houses are stuck on the rocks, and abut on the river itself, +and as the stream bore me past these I clung to the doorstep of a +washerwoman's house, and pulled my boat out of the water into her very +kitchen, to the great amusement and surprise of the worthy lady, who +wondered still more when I hauled the canoe again through the other side +of her room until it fairly came out to the street behind! + +It must have astonished the people to see a canoe thus suddenly +appearing on their quiet pavement. They soon crowded round and bore her +to the hotel, which was a moderately bad one. Next morning the bill was +twelve francs, nearly double its proper amount; and thus we encountered +in one day the only two extortionate innkeepers met with at all.[XXIII.] + + [XXIII.] However, I made the landlord here take eight francs as a + compromise. + +This quaint old place, with high walls and a foss, and several +antiquities, was well worth the inspection of my early morning walk next +day, and then the Rob Roy was ordered to the door. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Hunger--Music at the mill--Sentiment and chops--River + Limmat--Fixed on a fall--On the river Aar--The Rhine + again--Douaniers--Falls of Lauffenburg--The cow cart. + + +The wetting and excitement of yesterday made me rather stiff in +beginning again; and anon, when a rushing sound was heard in front I was +aware of a new anxiety as to whether this might not mean the same sort +of rough work as yesterday's over again, whereas hitherto this sound of +breakers to come had always promised nothing but pleasure. However, +things very soon came back to their old way, a continuous and varied +enjoyment from morning to night. + +The river was rapid again, but with no really difficult places. I saw +one raft in course of preparation, though there were not many boats, for +as the men there said, "How could we get boats _up_ that stream?" + +The villages near the river were often so high up on lofty cliffs, or +otherwise unsuitable, that I went on for some miles trying in vain to +fix on one for my (No. 1) dinner. Each bend of the winding water held +out hopes that down there at last, or round that bluff cape at farthest, +there must be a proper place to breakfast. But when it was now long past +the usual hour, and the shores got less inhabited and hunger more +imperative, we determined to land at a mill which overhung the stream in +a picturesque spot. + +I landed unobserved. This was a blunder in diplomacy, for the canoe was +always good as credentials; but I climbed up the bank and through the +garden, and found the hall door open; so I walked timidly into a large, +comfortable house, leaving my paddle outside lest it might be regarded +as a bludgeon. I had come as a beggar, not a burglar. + +The chords of a piano, well struck and by firm fingers, led me towards +the drawing-room; for to hear music is almost to make sure of welcome in +a house, and it was so now. + +My bows and reverences scarcely softened the exceedingly strange +appearance I must have made as an intruder, clothed in universal +flannel, and offering ten thousand apologies in French, German, and +English for thus dropping down from the clouds, that is to say, climbing +up from the water. + +The young miller rose from the piano, and bowed. His fair sister +stopped her sweet song, and blushed. For my part, being only a sort of +"casual," I modestly asked for bread and wine, and got hopelessly +involved in an effort to explain how I had come by the river +unperceived. The excessive courtesy of my new friends was embarrassing, +and was further complicated by the arrival of another young lady, even +more surprised and hospitable. + +Quickly the refreshments were set on the table, and the miller sealed +the intimacy by lighting his ample pipe. Our conversation was of the +most lively and unintelligible character, and soon lapsed into music, +when Beethoven and Goss told all we had to say in chants and symphonies. + +The inevitable sketch-book whiled away a good hour, till the ladies were +joined by a third damsel, and the adventures of Ulysses had to be told +to three Penelopes at once. The miller's party became humorous to a +degree, and they resisted all my efforts to get away, even when the +family dinner was set on the board, and the domestic servants and +farm-labourers came in to seat themselves at a lower table. This was a +picture of rural life not soon to be forgotten. + +The stately grandmamma of the mansion now advanced, prim and stiff, and +with dignity and matronly grace entreated the stranger to join their +company. The old oak furniture was lightened by a hundred little trifles +worked by the women, or collected by the tasteful diligence of their +brother; and the sun shone, and the mill went round, and the river +rolled by, and all was kindness, "because you are an Englishman." + +The power of the _Civis Romanus_ is far better shown when it draws forth +kindness, than when it compels fear. But as respects the formal +invitation it would not do to stop and eat, and it would not do to stop +and not eat, or to make the potatoes get cold, or the granddames' dinner +too late; so I _must_ go, even though the girls had playfully hidden my +luggage to keep the guest among them. + +The whole party, therefore, adjourned to the little nook where my boat +had been left concealed; and when they caught sight of its tiny form, +and its little fluttering flag, the young ladies screamed with delight +and surprise, clapping their hands and waving adieux as we paddled away. + +I left this happy, pleasant scene with mingled feelings, and tried to +think out what was the daily life in this sequestered mill; and if my +paddling did for a time become a little sentimental, it may be pardoned +by travellers who have come among kind friends where they expected +perhaps a cold rebuff. + +The romantic effect of all this was to make me desperately hungry, for +be it known that bread and wine and Beethoven will not do to dine upon +if you are rowing forty miles in the sun. So it must be confessed that +when an hour afterwards I saw an auberge by the water's edge it became +necessary to stifle my feelings by ordering an omelette and two chops. + +The table was soon spread under a shady pear-tree just by the water, and +the Rob Roy rested gently on the ripples at my feet. + +The pleasures of this sunny hour of well-earned repose, freshened by a +bunch of grapes and a pear plucked from above my head, were just a +little troubled by a slight apprehension that some day the miller's +sister might come by and hear how had been comforted my lacerated heart. + +Again "to boat," and down by the shady trees, under the towering rocks, +over the nimble rapids, and winding among orchards, vineyards, and +wholesome scented hay, the same old story of constant varied pleasure. + +The hills were in front now, and their contour showed that some rivers +were to join company with the Reuss, which here rolled on a fine broad +stream, like the Thames at Putney. Presently the Limmat flowed in at one +side, and at the other the river Aar, which last then gives the name to +all the three, though it did not appear to be the largest. + +This is not the only Aar among the rivers, but it is the "old original +Aar," which Swiss travellers regard as an acquaintance after they have +seen it dash headlong over the rocks at Handek. + +It takes its rise from two glaciers, one of them the Finster Aar +glacier, not far from Grimsel; and to me this gave it a special +interest, for I had been hard pushed once in the wilds near that homely +Hospice. + +It was on an afternoon some years ago, when I came from the Furca, by +the Rhone glacier to the foot of the valley, walking with two Germans; +and as they were rather "muffs," and meant to stop there, I +thoughtlessly set off alone to climb the rocks and to get to the Grimsel +by myself. + +This is easy enough in daylight, but it was nearly six o'clock when I +started, and late in September; so after a short half-hour of mounting, +the snow began to fall, and the darkness was not made less by the white +flakes drifting across it. By some happy conjuncture I managed to scale +the pathless mountain, and struck on a little stream which had often to +be forded in the dark, but was always leading to the desired valley. + +At length the light of the Hospice shone welcome as a haven to steer +for, and I soon joined the pleasant English guests inside, and bought a +pair of trousers from the waiter at 3_s._ 6_d._ for a change in the wet. + +But paddling on the Aar had no great danger where we met it now, for the +noisy, brawling torrent was sobered by age, and after much knocking +about in the world it had settled into a steady and respectable river. + +A few of my friends, the snags, were however lodged in the water +hereabouts, and as they bobbed their heads in uneasy beds, and the river +was much discoloured, it became worth while to keep a sharp lookout for +them. + +The "river tongue," explained already as consisting of sign language +with a parallel comment in loud English, was put to a severe test on a +wide stream like this. Consider, for example, how you could best ask the +following question (speaking by signs and English only) from a man who +is on the bank over there a hundred yards distant. + +"Is it better for me to go over to those rocks, and keep on the left of +that island, or to pull my boat out at these stumps, and drag her on +land into this channel?" + +One comfort is the man made out my meaning, for did he not answer, "Ya +vol?" He could not have done more had we both learned the same +language, unless indeed he had _heard_ what I said. + +Mills occurred here and there. Some of these had the waterwheel simply +built on the river; others had it so arranged as to allow the shaft to +be raised or lowered to suit the varying height of water in floods and +droughts. Others had it floating on barges. Others, again, had a half +weir built diagonally across part of the river; and it was important to +look carefully at this wall so as to see on which side it ought to be +kept in selecting the best course. In a few cases there was another +construction; two half weirs, converged gradually towards the middle of +the river, forming a letter V, with its sharp end turned _up_ the +stream, and leaving a narrow opening there, through which a torrent +flowed, with rough waves dancing merrily in the pool below. + +I had to "shoot" several of these, and at other times to get out and +lower the boat down them, in the manner explained before. + +On one occasion I was in an unaccountably careless fit, and instead of +first examining the depth of the water on the edge of the little fall, I +resolved to go straight at it and take my chance. + +It must be stated that while a depth of three inches is enough for the +canoe to float in when all its length is in the water, the same depth +will by no means suffice at the upper edge of a fall. For when the boat +arrives there the fore part, say six or seven feet of it, projects for a +time over the fall and out of the water, and is merely in the air, +without support, so that the centre of the keel will sink at least six +or seven inches; and if there be not more water than this the keel +catches the crest of the weir, and the boat will then stop, and perhaps +swing round, after which it must fall over sideways, unless considerable +dexterity is used in the management. + +Although a case of this sort had occurred to me before, I got again into +the same predicament, which was made far more puzzling as the fore end +of the boat went under a rock at the bottom of the fall, and thus the +canoe hung upon the edge, and would go neither one way nor another.[XXIV.] +It would also have been very difficult to get out of the boat in this +position; for to jump feet foremost would have broken the boat--to +plunge in head first might have broken my head on the rocks below. + + [XXIV.] This adventure was the result of temporary carelessness, + while that at the rapids was the result of impatience, for the passage + of these latter could probably have been effected without encountering + the central wave had an hour or two been spent in examining the place. + Let not any tourist, then, be deterred from a paddle on the Reuss, which + is a perfectly suitable river, with no unavoidable dangers. + +[Illustration: "Fixed on the fall."] + +The canoe was much wrenched in my struggles, which ended, however, by +man and boat tumbling down sideways, and, marvellous to say, quite +safely to the bottom. + +This performance was not one to be proud of. Surely it was like +ingratitude to treat the Rob Roy thus, exposing it to needless risk when +it had carried me so far and so well. + +The Aar soon flows into the Rhine, and here is our canoe on old Rhenus +once more, with the town of Waldshut ("end of the forest") leaning over +the high bank to welcome us near. + +There is a lower path and a row of little houses at the bottom of the +cliff, past which the Rhine courses with rapid eddies deep and strong. +Here an old fisherman soon spied me, and roared out his biography at the +top of his voice; how he had been a courier in Lord Somebody's family; +how he had journeyed seven years in Italy, and could fish with +artificial flies, and was seventy years old, with various other reasons +why I should put my boat into his house. + +He was just the man for the moment; but first those two uniformed +_douaniers_ must be dealt with, and I had to satisfy their dignity by +paddling up the strong current to their lair; for the fly had touched +the spiders' web and the spiders were too grand to come out and seize +it. Good humour, and smiles, and a little judicious irony as to the +absurd notion of overhauling a canoe which could be carried on your +back, soon made them release me, if only to uphold their own dignity, +and I left the boat in the best drawing-room of the ex-courier, and +ascended the hill to the hotel aloft. + +But the man came too, and he had found time to prepare an amended report +of the boat's journey for the worthy landlord, so, as usual, there was +soon everything ready for comfort and good cheer. + +Waldshut is made up of one wide street almost closed at the end, and +with pretty gardens about it, and a fine prospect from its high +position; but an hour's walk appeared to exhaust all the town could +show, though the scenery round such a place is not to be done with in +this brief manner. + +The visitors soon came to hear and see more nearly what the newspapers +had told them of the canoe. One gentleman, indeed, seemed to expect me +to unfold the boat from my pocket, for a French paper had spoken about a +man going over the country "with a canoe under his arm." The evening was +enlivened by some signals, burned at my bedroom-window to lighten up the +street, which little entertainment was evidently entirely new--to the +Waldshutians at least. + +Before we start homewards on the Rhine with our faces due West, it may +be well very briefly to give the log bearings and direction of the +canoe's voyage up to this point. + +First, by the Thames, July 29, E. (East), to Shoeburyness, thence to +Sheerness, S. From that by rail to Dover, and by steamer to Ostend, and +rail again, Aug. 7, to the Meuse, along which the course was nearly E., +until its turn into Holland, N.E. Then, Aug. 11, to the Rhine, S.E., and +ascending it nearly S., until at Frankfort, Aug. 17, we go N.E. by rail +to Asschaffenburg, and by the river wind back again to Frankfort in +wide curves. Farther up the Rhine, Aug. 24, our course is due S., till +from Freyburg the boat is carted E. to the Titisee, and to +Donaueschingen, and, Aug. 28, descends the Danube, which there flows +nearly E., but with great bends to N. and S. until, Sept. 2, we are at +Ulm. The rail next carries us S. to the Lake of Constance, which is +sailed along in a course S.W., and through the Zeller See to +Schaffhausen, Sept. 7, about due W. Thence turning S. to Zurich, and +over the lake and the neck of land, and veering to the W. by Zug, we +arrive on Lucerne, Sept. 10, where the southernmost point of the voyage +is reached, and then our prow points to N., till, Sept. 12, we land at +Waldshut. + +This devious course had taken the boat to several different kingdoms and +states--Holland, Belgium, France, Wurtemburg, Bavaria, and the Grand +Duchy of Baden, Rhenish Prussia, the Palatinate, Switzerland, and the +pretty Hollenzollern Sigmaringen. Now we had come back again to the very +Grand Duchy again, a land where all travellers must mind their p's and +q's. + +The ex-courier took the canoe from his wife's washing-tubs and put her +on the Rhine, and then he spirited my start by recounting the lively +things we must expect soon to meet. I must take care to "keep to the +right," near the falls of Lauffenburg, for an English lord had been +carried over them and drowned;[XXV.] and I must beware of Rheinfelden +rapids, because an Englishman had tried to descend them in a boat with a +fisherman, and their craft was capsized and the fisherman was drowned; +and I must do this here, and that there, and so many other things +everywhere else, that all the directions were jumbled up together. But +it seemed to relieve the man to tell his tale, and doubtless he sat down +to his breakfast comfortable in mind and body, and cut his meat into +little bits, and then changed the fork to the right hand to eat them +every one, as they all do hereabouts, with every appearance of content. + + [XXV.] This was Lord Montague, the last of his line, and on the + same day his family mansion of Cowdray, in Sussex, was burned to the + ground. + +Up with the sails! for the East wind freshens, and the fair wide river +hurries along. This was a splendid scene to sail in, with lofty banks of +rock, and rich meads, or terraces laden with grapes. After a good +morning's pleasure here the wind suddenly rose to a gale, and I took in +my jib just in time, for a sort of minor hurricane came on, raising tall +columns of dust on the road alongside, blowing off men's hats, and +whisking up the hay and leaves and branches high into the air. + +Still I kept the lug-sail set; and with wind and current in the same +direction I scudded faster than I ever sailed before in my life. Great +exertion was required to manage a light skiff safely with such a +whirlwind above and a whirlwater below; one's nerves were kept in +extreme tension, and it was a half-hour of pleasant excitement. + +For this reason it was that I did not for some time notice a youth who +had been running after the boat, yelling and shrieking, and waving his +coat in the air. + +We drew nearer to him, and "luffed up," hailing him with, "What's the +matter?" and he could only pant out "Wasserfall, Wasserfall, funf +minuten!"----the breeze had brought me within a hundred yards of the +falls of Lauffenburg,--the whistle of the wind had drowned the roar of +the water. + +I crossed to the right bank (as the ex-courier had directed), but the +youth's loud cries to come to the "links," or left side, at last +prevailed, and he was right in this. The sail was soon lowered, and the +boat was hauled on a raft, and then this fine young fellow explained +that five minutes more would have turned the corner and drawn me into +the horrid current sweeping over the falls. + +While he set off in search of a cart to convey the boat, I had time to +pull her up the high bank and make all snug for a drive, and anon he +returned with a very grotesque carter and a most crazy vehicle, +actually drawn by a milch cow! All three of us laughed as we hoisted the +Rob Roy on this cart, and the cow kicked vehemently, either at the cart, +or the boat, or the laughing. + +Our procession soon entered the little town, but it was difficult to be +dignified. As the cart with a screeching wheel rattled slowly over the +big round stones of the street, vacant at midday, the windows were soon +full of heads, and after one peep at us, down they rushed to see the +fun.[XXVI.] A cow drawing a boat to the door of a great hotel is +certainly a quaint proceeding; although in justice to the worthy +quadruped I should mention that she now behaved in a proper and ladylike +manner. + + [XXVI.] A sketch of this cow-cart will be found, _post_, page 213. + +Here the public hit upon every possible way but the right one to +pronounce the boat's name, painted in blue letters on its bow. Sometimes +it was "Roab Ro," at others "Rubree," but at length a man in spectacles +called out, "Ah! ah! Valtarescote!" The mild Sir Walter's novels had not +been written in vain. + +The falls of Lauffenburg[XXVII.] can be seen well from the bridge which +spans the river, much narrowed at this spot. + + [XXVII.] "Lauffenburg" means the "town of the falls," from "laufen," + to run; and the Yankee term "loafer" may come from this "herum laufer," + one running about. + +A raft is coming down as we look at the thundering foam--of course +without the men upon it; see the great solid frame that seems to resent +the quickening of its quiet pace, and to hold back with a presentiment +of evil as every moment draws it nearer to the plunge. + +Crash go all the bindings, and the huge, sturdy-logs are hurled +topsy-turvy into the gorge, bouncing about like chips of firewood, and +rattling among the foam. Nor was it easy to look calmly on this without +thinking how the frail canoe would have fared in such a cauldron of cold +water boiling. + +The salmon drawn into this place get terribly puzzled by it, and so are +caught by hundreds in great iron cages lowered from the rocks for this +purpose. Fishing stations of the same kind are found at several points +on the river, where a stage is built on piles, and a beam supports a +strong net below. In a little house, like a sentry-box, you notice a man +seated, silent and lonely, while he holds tenderly in his hand a dozen +strings, which are fastened to the edges of the net. When a fish is +beguiled into the snare, or is borne in by the swift current +bewildering, the slightest vibrations of the net are thrilled along the +cords to the watcher's hand, and then he raises the great beam and +secures the prize. + +My young friend, who had so kindly warned me, and hired the cow, and +shown the salmon, I now invited to breakfast, and he became the hero of +the hour, being repeatedly addressed by the other inquirers in an +unpronounceable German title, which signifies, in short, "Man +preserver." + +Here we heard again of a certain four-oared boat, with five Englishmen +in it, which had been sent out from London overland to Schaffhausen, and +then descended the Rhine rowing swiftly. This, the people said, had come +to Lauffenburg about six weeks before, and I fully sympathised with the +crew in their charming pull, especially if the weather was such as we +had enjoyed; that is to say, not one shower in the boat from the source +of the Danube to the Palace of Westminster. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Field of Foam--Precipice--Puzzled--Philosophy--Rheinfelden + Rapids--Dazzled--Astride--Fate of the Four-oar--Very Salt--The + Ladies--Whirlpool--Funny English--A baby--The bride. + + +The canoe was now fixed on a hand-cart and dragged once more through the +streets to a point below the falls, and the Rob Roy became very lively +on the water after its few hours of rest. All was brilliant around, and +deep underneath, and azure above, and happy within, till the dull +distant sound of breakers began and got louder, and at last could not be +ignored; we have come to the rapids of Rheinfelden. + +The exaggeration with which judicious friends at each place describe the +dangers to be encountered is so general in these latitudes, that one +learns to receive it calmly, but the scene itself when I came to the +place was certainly puzzling and grand. + +Imagine some hundreds of acres all of water in white crested waves, +varied only by black rocks resisting a struggling torrent, and a loud, +thundering roar, mingled with a strange hissing, as the spray from ten +thousand sharp-pointed billows is tossed into the air. + +And then you are alone, too, and the banks are high, and you have a +precious boat to guard. + +While there was time to do it I stood up in my boat to survey, but it +was a mere horizon of waves, and nothing could be learned from looking. +Then I coasted towards one side where the shrubs and trees hanging in +the water brushed the paddle, and seemed so safe because they were on +shore. + +The rapids of Bremgarten could probably be passed most easily by keeping +to the edge, though with much delay and numerous "getting outs," but an +attempt now to go along the side in this way was soon shown to be +useless, for presently I came to a lofty rock jutting out into the +stream, and the very loud roar behind it fortunately attracted so much +attention that I pulled into the bank, made the boat fast, and mounted +through the thicket to the top of the cliff. + +I saw at once that to try to pass by this rock in any boat would be +madness, for the swiftest part of the current ran right under the +projecting crag, and then wheeled round and plunged over a height of +some feet into a pool of foam, broken fragments, and powerful waves. + +Next, would it be just possible to float the boat past the rock while I +might hold the painter from above? The rock on careful measurement was +found too high for this. + +To see well over the cliff I had to lie down on my face, and the +pleasant curiosity felt at first, as to how I should have to act, now +gradually sickened into the sad conviction, "Impossible!" Then was the +time to turn with earnest eyes to the wide expanse of the river, and see +if haply, somewhere at least, even in the middle, a channel might be +traced. Yes, there certainly was a channel, only one, very far out, and +very difficult to hit upon when you sit in a boat quite near the level +of the water; but the attempt must be made, or stay,--might I not get +the boat carried round by land? Under the trees far off were men who +might be called to help, labourers quietly working, and never minding +me. I was tempted, but did not yield. + +For a philosophical thought had come upmost, that, after all, the boat +had not to meet _every_ wave and rock now visible, and the thousand +breakers dashing around, but only a certain few which would be on each +side in my crooked and untried way; of the rocks in any one line--say +fifty of them between me and any point--only two would become a new +danger in crossing that line. + +Then again, rapids look worse from the shore than they really are, +because you see all their difficulties at once, and you hear the +general din. On the other hand, waves look much smaller from the bank +(being half hidden by others) than you find them to be when the boat is +in the trough between two. The hidden rocks may make a channel which +looks good enough from the land, to be quite impracticable when you +attempt it in the water. + +Lastly, the current is seen to be swifter from the shore where you can +observe its speed from a fixed point, than it seems when you are in the +water where you notice only its velocity in relation to the stream on +each side, which is itself all the time running at four or five miles an +hour. But it is the positive speed of the current that ought really to +be considered, for it is by this the boat will be urged against a +breaker stationary in the river. + +To get to this middle channel at once from the place where I had left my +boat was not possible. We must enter it higher up the river, so I had to +pull the canoe up stream, over shallows, and along the bristly margin, +wading, towing, and struggling, for about half a mile, till at length it +seemed we must be high enough up stream to let me paddle out swiftly +across, while the current would take the boat sideways to the rough +water. + +And now in a little quiet bay I rested half an hour to recover strength +after this exertion, and to prepare fully for a "spurt," which might +indeed be delayed in starting, but which, once begun, must be vigorous +and all watchful to the end. + +Here various thoughts blended and tumbled about in the mind most +disorderly. To leave this quiet bank and willingly rush out, in cold +blood, into a field of white breakers; to tarnish the fair journey with +a foolhardy prank; to risk the Rob Roy where the touch of one rock was +utter destruction. Will it be pleasant? Can it be wise? Is it right? + +The answer was, to sponge out every drop of water from the boat, to +fasten the luggage inside, that it might not fall out in an upset, to +brace the waterproof cover all tight around, and to get its edge in my +teeth ready to let go in capsizing, and then to pull one gentle stroke +which put the boat's nose out of the quiet water into the fast stream, +and hurrah! we are off at a swinging pace. + +The sun, now shining exactly up stream, was an exceedingly uncomfortable +addition to the difficulties; for its glancing beams confounded all the +horizon in one general band of light, so that rocks, waves, solid water, +and the most flimsy foam were all the same at a little distance. This, +the sole disadvantage of a cloudless sky, was so much felt in my +homeward route that I sometimes prolonged the morning's work by three or +four hours (with sun behind or on one side), so as to shorten the +evening's _quota_ where it was dead in the eye of the sun. On the +present occasion, when it was of great moment to hit the channel +exactly, I could not see it at all, even with my blue spectacles on. +They seemed to be utterly powerless against such a fiery blaze; and, +what was almost worse, my eyes were thereby so dazzled that on looking +to nearer objects I could scarcely see them either. + +This unexpected difficulty was so serious that I thought for a moment of +keeping on in my present course (directed straight across the river), so +as to attain the opposite side, and there to wait for the sun to go +down. + +But it was already too late to adopt this plan, for the current had been +swiftly bearing me down stream, and an instant decision must be made. +"Now," thought I, "judging by the number of paddle-strokes, we must +surely be opposite the channel in the middle, and now I must turn to +it." + +By a happy hit, the speed and the direction of the canoe were both well +fitted, so that when the current had borne us to the breakers the boat's +bow was just turned exactly down stream, and I entered the channel +whistling for very loneliness, like a boy in the dark. + +But it was soon seen to be "all right, Englishman;" so in ten minutes +more the canoe had passed the rapids, and we floated along pleasantly on +that confused "bobbery" of little billows always found below broken +water,--a sort of mob of waves, which for a time seem to be elbowing and +jostling in all directions to find their proper places. + +I saw here two fishermen by one of the salmon traps described above, and +at once pulled over to them, to land on a little white bank of sand, +that I might rest, and bale out, and hear the news. + +The men asked if I had come down the rapids in that boat. "Yes." "By the +middle channel?" "Yes." They smiled to each other, and then both at once +commenced a most voluble and loud-spoken address in the vilest of +patois. Their eagerness and energy rose to such a pitch that I began to +suppose they were angry; but the upshot of all this eloquence (always +louder when you are seen not to understand one word of it) was this, +"There are other rapids to come. You will get there in half an hour. +They are far worse than what you have passed. Your boat _must_ be +carried round them on land." + +To see if this was said to induce me to employ them as porters, I asked +the men to come along in their boat, so as to be ready to help me; but +they consulted together, and did not by any means agree in admiring this +proposal. Then I asked them to explain the best route through the next +rapids, when they drew such confused diagrams on the sand, and gave such +complicated directions, that it was impossible to make head or tail of +their atrocious jargon; so I quietly bowed, wiped out the sand pictures +with my foot, and started again happy and free; for it is really the +case that in these things "ignorance is bliss." The excitement of +finding your way, and the satisfaction when you have found it yourself, +is well worth all the trouble. Just so in mountain travel. If you go +merely to work the muscles, and to see the view, it will do to be tied +by a rope to three guides, and to follow behind them; but then _theirs_ +is all the mental exertion, and tact, and judgment, while yours is only +the merit of keeping up with the leaders, treading in their steps. And +therefore I have observed that there is less of this particular pleasure +of the discoverer when one is ascending Mont Blanc, where by traditional +rule one must be tied to the guides, than in making out a path over a +mountain pass undirected, though the heights thus climbed up are not so +great. + +When the boat got near the lower rapids, I went ashore and walked for +half a mile down the bank, and so was able to examine the bearings well. +It appeared practicable to get along by the shallower parts of one side, +so this was resolved upon as my course. + +It is surely quite fair to go by the easiest way, provided there is no +carrying overland adopted, or other plan for shirking the water. The +method accordingly used in this case was rather a novel mode of +locomotion, and it was quite successful, as well as highly amusing. + +In the wide plain of breakers here, the central district seemed +radically bad, so we cautiously kept out of the main current, and went +where the stream ran fast enough nevertheless. I sat stridelegs on the +deck of the boat near its stern, and was thus floated down until the +bow, projecting out of the water, went above a ridge of rocks, and the +boat grounded. Thus I received the shock against my legs (hanging in the +water), so that the violence of its blow was eased off from the boat. + +Then I immediately fixed both feet on the rock, and stood up, and the +canoe went free from between my knees, and could be lowered down or +pushed forward until the water got deeper, and when it got too deep to +wade after her I pulled the boat back between my knees, and sat down +again on it as before. + +[Illustration: "Astride the Stern."] + +The chief difficulty in this proceeding was to be equally attentive at +once to keep hold of the boat, to guide it between rocks, to keep hold +of the paddle, and to manage not to tumble on loose stones, or to get +into the water above the waist. + +Thus by successive riding and ferrying over the deep pools, and walking +and wading in the shallows, by pushing the boat here, and by being +carried upon it there, the lower rapids of Rheinfelden were most +successfully passed without any damage. + +It will be seen from the description already given of the rapids at +Bremgarten, and now of these two rapids on the Rhine, that the main +difficulties are only for him who goes there uninformed, and that these +can be avoided by examining them on the spot at the cost of a walk and a +short delay. But the pleasure is so much enhanced by the whole thing +being novel, that, unless for a man who wishes simply to _get past_, it +is better to seek a channel for oneself, even if a much easier one has +been found out by other people. + +The town of Rheinfelden was now in view, and I began to wonder how the +English four-oar boat we had traced as far as Lauffenburg could have +managed to descend the rapids just now passed. But I learned afterwards +that the four-oar had come there in a time of flood, when rocks would be +covered, and probably with only such eddies as I have already noticed +higher up the river where it was deep. So they pulled on bravely to +Bâle, where the hotel folks mentioned that when the five moist Britons +arrived their clothes and baggage were all drenched, and the waiter +said, with a malicious grin, that thereby his friend the washerwoman +had earned twenty-seven francs in one night. + +On the left bank of the river was a large building with a smooth gravel +shore in front, to which I steered at once. This was the great +salt-water baths of Rheinfelden--a favourite resort for crippled +invalids. The salt rock in the earth beneath impregnates the springs +with such an intensity of brine that eighty per cent. of fresh water has +to be added before the saline mixture can be medicinally employed as a +bath. If you take a glass of the water as it proceeds from the spring, +and put a little salt in it, the salt will not dissolve, the water is +already saturated. A drop of it put on your coat speedily dries up and +leaves a white stain of minute crystals. In fact, this water seemed to +me to be far more saline than even the water of the Dead Sea, which is +in all conscience salt enough, as every one knows who has rubbed it on +his face in that reeking-hot death-stricken valley of Jericho. + +Though the shore was pleasant here and the water was calm, I found no +one to welcome me now, and yet this was the only time I had reason to +expect somebody to greet the arrival of the canoe. For in the morning a +worthy German had told me he was going by train to Rheinfelden, and he +would keep a look out for the canoe, and would surely meet me on the +beach if I "ever got through the rapids." But I found afterwards that he +_had_ come there, and with his friends, too, and they had waited and +waited till at last they gave up the Rob Roy as a "missing ship." +Excellent man, he must have had some novel excuses to comfort his +friends with as they retired, disappointed, after waiting in vain! + +There was however, not far off, a poor woman washing clothes by the +river, and thumping and bullying them with a wooden bludgeon as if her +sole object was to smash up the bachelor's shirt-buttons. A fine boy of +eight years old was with her, a most intelligent little fellow, whose +quick eye at once caught sight of the Rob Roy as it dashed round the +point into the smooth water of the bay, and landed me there a tired, +tanned traveller, wet and warm. + +This juvenile helped me more than any man ever did, and with such +alacrity, too, and intelligence, and good humour, that I felt grateful +to the boy. We spread out the sails to dry, and my socks and shoes in +the sun, and sponged out the boat, and then dragged her up the high +bank. Here, by good luck, we found two wheels on an axle left alone, for +what purpose I cannot imagine; but we got a stick and fastened it to +them as a pole, and then put the boat on this extemporized vehicle, and +with the boy (having duly got permission from his mamma) soon pulled the +canoe to the gates of the old town, and then rattling through the +streets, even to the door of the hotel. A bright franc in the lad's hand +made him start with amaze, but he instantly rose to the dignity of the +occasion, and some dozens of other urchins formed an attentive audience +as he narrated over and over the events of the last half-hour, and ended +always by showing the treasure in his hand, "and the Herr gave me this!" + +The Krone hotel here is very prettily situated. It is a large house, +with balconies overlooking the water, and a babbling _jet d'eau_ in its +garden, which is close by the river. + +The stream flows fast in front, and retains evidence of having passed +through troublous times higher up; therefore it makes no small noise as +it rushes under the arches of the covered wooden bridge, but though +there are rocks and a few eddies the passage is easy enough if you look +at it for five minutes to form a mental chart of your course. My German +friend having found out that the canoe had arrived after all, his +excitement and pleasure abounded. Now he was proved right. Now his +promises, broken as it seemed all day, were all fulfilled. + +He was a very short, very fat, and very hilarious personage, with a +minute smattering of English, which he had to speak loudly, so as to +magnify its value among his Allemand friends, envious of his +accomplishment. + +His explanations of the contents of my sketch-book were truly ludicrous +as he dilated on it page by page, but he well deserved all gratitude for +ordering my hotel bedroom and its comforts, which were never more +acceptable than now after a hard day's work. Music finished the evening, +and then the hum of the distant rapids sung me a lullaby breathing soft +slumber. + +Next morning, as there was but a short row to Bâle, I took a good long +rest in bed, and then carried the canoe half way across the bridge where +a picturesque island is formed into a terraced garden, and here we +launched the boat on the water. Although the knocks and strains of the +last few days were very numerous, and many of them of portentous force, +judging by the sounds they made, the Rob Roy was still hale and hearty, +and the carpenter's mate had no damages to report to the captain. It was +not until harder times came, in the remainder of the voyage, that her +timbers suffered and her planks were tortured by rough usage. + +A number of ladies patronized the start on this occasion, and as they +waved their parasols and the men shouted Hoch! and Bravo! we glided +down stream, the yellow paddle being waved round my head in an original +mode of "salute," which I invented specially for returning friendly +gratulations of this kind. + +Speaking about Rheinfelden, Baedeker says, "Below the town another rapid +of the Rhine forms a sort of whirlpool called the Höllenhaken," a +formidable announcement, and a terrible name; but what is called here a +"whirlpool" is not worth notice. + +The sound of a railway train beside the river reminds you that this is +not quite a strange, wild, unseen country. Reminds you I say, because +really when you are in the river bed, you easily forget all that is +beyond it on each side. + +Let a landscape be ever so well known from the road, it becomes new +again when you view it from the level of the water. For before the scene +was bounded by a semicircle with the diameter on the horizon, and the +arch of sky for its circumference. But when you are seated in the canoe, +the picture changes to the form of a great sector, with its point on the +clear water, and each radius inclining aloft through rocks, trees, and +mossy banks, on this side and on that. And this holds good even on a +well worn river like the Thames. The land-scenes between Oxford and +London get pretty well known and admired by travellers, but the views +will seem both fresh and fair if you row down the river through them. +Nay, there are few rivers which have such lovely scenery as the Thames +can show in its windings along that route. + +But our canoe is now getting back to civilization, and away from that +pleasant simplicity where everything done in the streets or the hotel is +strange to a stranger. Here we have composite candles and therefore no +snuffers; here the waiter insists on speaking English, and sitting down +by me, and clutching my arm, he confidentially informs me that there are +no "bean green," translating "haricots verts," but that perhaps I might +like a "flower caul," so we assent to a cauliflower. + +This is funny enough, but far more amusing is it when the woman waiter +of some inland German village shouts louder German to you, because that +she rattles out at first is not understood. She gazes with a new +sensation at a guest who actually cannot comprehend her voluble words, +and then guest and waiter burst into laughter. + +Here too I saw a boat towed along the Rhine--a painful evidence of being +near commerce, even though it was in a primitive style; not that there +was any towing-path, but men walked among the bushes, pulling the boat +with a rope, and often wading to do so. This sight told me at once that +I had left the fine free forests where you might land anywhere, and it +was sure to be lonely and charming. + +After a few bends westward we come in sight of the two towers of Bâle, +but the setting sun makes it almost impossible to see anything in its +brightness, so we must only paddle on. + +The bridge at Bâle was speedily covered by the idle and the curious as +the canoe pulled up at an hotel a few yards from the water on Sept. +14th. + +It was here that the four-oared boat had arrived some weeks ago with its +moist crew. The proprietor of the house was therefore much pleased to +see another English boat come in, so little and so lonely, but still so +comfortable and so dry. I walked about the town and entered a church +(Protestant here of course), where a number of people had assembled at a +baptism. The baby was fixed on a sort of frame, so as to be easily +handed about from mother to father, and from clerk to minister; I hereby +protest against this mechanical arrangement as a flagrant indignity to +the little darling. I have a great respect for babies, sometimes a +certain awe. + +The instant the christening was done, a happy couple came forward to be +married, an exceedingly clumsy dolt of a bridegroom and a fair bride, +not very young, that is to say, about fifty-five years old. There were +no bridesmaids or other perplexing appurtenances, and after the simple +ceremony the couple just walked away, amid the titters of a numerous +crowd of women. The bridegroom did not seem to know exactly what to do +next. He walked before his wife, then behind her, and then on one side, +but it did not somehow feel quite comfortable, so he assumed a sort of +diagonal position, and kept nudging her on till they disappeared in some +house. Altogether, I never saw a more unromantic commencement of married +life, but there was this redeeming point, that they were not bored by +that dread infliction--a marriage breakfast--the first meeting of two +jealous sets of new relations, who are all expected to be made friends +at once by eating when they are not hungry, and listening when there is +nothing to say. But, come, it is not proper for me to criticise these +mysteries, so let us go back to the inn. + +In the coffee-room a Frenchman, who had been in London, has just been +instructing two Mexicans, who are going there, as to hotels, and it is +excessively amusing to hear his description of the London "Caffy Hous," +and the hotels in "Lyces-ter-squar." "It is pronounced squar," he said, +"in England." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + Private concert--Thunderer--La Hardt Forest--Mulhouse + Canal--River Ill--Reading stories--Madame Nico--Night + noises--Pets--Ducking--Vosges--Admirers--Boat on wheels--New + wine. + + +Bâle is, in every sense, a turning-point on the Rhine. The course of the +river here bends abruptly from west to north, and the character of the +scenery beside it alters at once from high sloping banks to a widespread +network of streams, all entangled in countless islands, and yet ever +tending forward, northward, seaward through the great rich valley of the +Rhine with mountain chains reared on each side like two everlasting +barriers. + +Here then we could start anew almost in any direction, and I had not +settled yet what route to take, whether by the Saone and Doubs to paddle +to the Rhone, and so descend to Marseilles, and coast by the Cornici +road, and sell the boat at Genoa; or--and this second plan must be +surely a better alternative, if by it we can avoid a sale of the Rob +Roy--I could not part with her now--so let us at once decide to go back +through France. + +We were yet on the river slowly paddling when this decision was arrived +at, and the river carried me still, for I determined not to leave its +pleasant easy current for a slow canal, until the last possible +opportunity. A diligent study of new maps procured at Bâle, showed that +a canal ran northward nearly parallel to the Rhine, and approached very +near to the river at one particular spot, which indeed looked hard +enough to find even on the map, but was far more dubious when we got +into a maze of streamlets and little rivers circling among high osiers, +so thick and close that even on shore it was impossible to see a few +yards. + +But the line of tall poplars along the canal was visible now and then, +so I made a guesswork turn, and it was not far wrong, or at any rate we +got so near the canal that by winding about for a little in a pretty +limpid stream, I brought the Rob Roy at last within carrying distance. + +A song or two (without words) and a variation of the music by whistling +on the fingers would be sure to bring anybody out of the osiers who was +within reach of the outlandish concert, and so it proved, for a woman's +head soon peered over a break in the dense cover. She wished to help to +carry the boat herself, but the skipper's gallantry had scruples as to +this proposal, so she disappeared and soon fetched a man, and we bore +the canoe with some trouble through hedges and bushes, and over dykes +and ditches, and at last through deep grassy fields, till she was safely +placed on the canal. + +The man was delighted by a two-franc piece. He had been well paid for +listening to bad music. As for the boat she lay still and resigned, +awaiting my next move, and as for me I sighed to give a last look +backward, and to say with Byron-- + + "Adieu to thee, fair Rhine! How long delighted + The stranger fain would linger on his way! + Thine is a scene alike where souls united + Or lonely contemplation thus might stray; + And could the ceaseless vultures cease to prey + On self-condemning bosoms, it were here, + Where Nature, nor too sombre nor too gay, + Wild but not rude, awful yet not austere, + Is to the mellow earth as autumn to the year. + + Adieu to thee again! a vain adieu! + There can be no farewell to scene like thine; + The mind is colour'd by thy every hue; + And if reluctantly the eyes resign + Their cherish'd gaze upon thee, lovely Rhine! + 'Tis with the thankful glance of parting praise; + More mighty spots may rise, more glaring shine, + But none unite in one attaching maze + The brilliant, fair, and soft--the glories of old days. + + The negligently grand, the fruitful bloom + Of coming ripeness, the white city's sheen, + The rolling stream, the precipice's gloom, + The forest's growth, and gothic walls between, + The wild rocks shaped as they had turrets been + In mockery of man's art; and these withal + A race of faces happy as the scene, + Whose fertile bounties here extend to all, + Still springing o'er thy banks, though empires near them fall. + + But these recede. Above me are the Alps, + The palaces of nature, whose vast walls + Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps, + And throned eternity in icy halls + Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls + The avalanche--the thunderbolt of snow! + All that expands the spirit, yet appals, + Gather around these summits, as to show + How earth may pierce to heaven, yet leave vain man below." + + --_Childe Harold, Canto III._ + +To my surprise and satisfaction the canal had a decided current in it, +and in the right direction too. It is true that this current was only +about two miles an hour, but even that is something; and though the +little channel was hardly twelve feet wide, yet it was clear and deep, +and by no means stupid to travel on. + +After a few miles I came to a drawbridge, which rested within a foot of +the water. A man came to raise the bridge by machinery, and he was +surprised to see my way of passing it instead, that is, to shove my +boat under it, while I quietly walked over the top and got into the boat +at the other side. This was, without doubt, the first boat which had +traversed the canal without the bridge being raised, but I had passed +several very low bridges on the Danube, some of them not two inches +above the surface of the water. The very existence of these proves that +no boats pass there, and mine only passed by pulling it over the bridge +itself. It may be asked, how such a low bridge fares in flood times? and +the answer is, that the water simply flows all over it. In some cases +the planks which form the roadway are removed when the water rises, and +then the wayfaring man who comes to the river must manage in some other +mode. His bridge is removed at the very time when the high water makes +it most necessary. + +The bridge man was so intelligent in his remarks that we determined to +stop there and breakfast, so I left the canoe in his charge and found my +way to a little publichouse at the hamlet of Gros Kembs, and helped the +wizened old lady who ruled there to make me an omelette--my help, by the +bye, consisted in ordering, eating, and paying for the omelette, for the +rest she was sure to do well enough, as all French women can, and no +English ones. + +The village gossips soon arrived, and each person who saw the boat came +on to the inn to see the foreigner who could sail in such a _batteau_. + +The courteous and respectful behaviour of Continental people is so +uniform that the stranger among them is bound, I think, to amuse and +interest these folk in return. This was most easily done by showing all +my articles of luggage,[XXVIII.] and of course the drawings. A Testament +with gilt leaves was, however, the chief object of curiosity, and all +the _savants_ of the party tried in turn to read it. + + [XXVIII.] See an inventory of these in the Appendix. + +One of these as spokesman, and with commendable gravity, told me he had +read in their district newspaper about the canoe, but he little expected +to have the honour of meeting its owner. + +Fancy the local organ of such a place! Is it called the "News of the +Wold," or the "Gros Kembs Thunderer"? Well, whatever was the title of +the Gazette, it had an article about Pontius Pilate and my visit to the +Titisee in the Black Forest, and this it was no doubt which made these +canal people so very inquisitive on the occasion. + +The route now lay through the great forest of La Hardt, with dense +thickets on each side of the canal, and not a sound anywhere to be heard +but the hum now and then of a dragon fly. One or two woodmen met me as +they trudged silently home from work, but there was a lonely feeling +about the place without any of the romance of wild country. + +In the most brilliant day the scenery of a canal has at best but scant +liveliness, the whole thing is so prosaic and artificial, and in fact +stupid, if one can ever say that of any place where there is fresh air +and clear water, and blue sky and green trees. + +Still I had to push on, and sometimes, for a change, to tow the boat +while I walked. The difference between a glorious river encircling you +with lofty rocks and this canal with its earthen walls was something +like that between walking among high mountains and being shut up by +mistake in Bloomsbury-square. + +No birds chirped or sung, or even flew past, only the buzzing of flies +was mingled with the distant shriek of a train on the railway. It is +this railway which has killed the canal, for I saw no boats moving upon +it. The long continued want of rain had also reduced its powers of +accommodation for traffic, and the traffic is so little at the best that +it would not pay to buy water for the supply. For in times of drought +canal water is very expensive. It was said that the Regent's Canal, in +London, had to pay 5,000_l._ for what they required last summer, in +consequence of the dryness of the season. + +At length we came to a great fork of the canal in a wide basin, and I +went along the branch to the town of Mulhouse, a place of great wealth, +the largest French cotton town--the Manchester of France. + +The street boys here were very troublesome, partly because they were +intelligent, and therefore inquisitive, and partly because manufacturing +towns make little urchins precocious and forward in their manners. + +I hired a truck from a woman and hired a man to drag it, and so took the +boat to the best hotel, a fine large house, where they at once +recognized the canoe, and seemed to know all about it from report. + +The hotel porter delayed so long next morning to wheel the boat to the +railway, that when we took her into the luggage office as usual and +placed the boat on the counter with the trunks and band-boxes, the +officials declined to put it in the train. + +This was the first time it had been refused on a railroad, and I used +every kind of persuasion, but in vain, and this being the first +application of the kind on French soil we felt that difficulties were +ahead, if this precedent was to hold good. + +Subsequent experience showed that the French railways will not take a +canoe as baggage; while the other seven or eight countries we had +brought the boat through were all amenable to pressure on this point. + +We had desired to go by the railway only a few miles, but it would have +enabled me to avoid about fifty locks on the canal and thus have saved +two tedious days. As, however, they would not take the boat in a +passenger train we carried her back to the canal, and I determined to +face the locks boldly, and to regard them as an exercise of patience and +of the flexor muscles, as it happens sometimes one's walk is only "a +constitutional." + +The Superintendent of the Rhine and Rhone Canal was very civil, and +endeavoured to give me the desirable information I required, but which +he had not got, that is to say, the length, depth, and general character +of the several rivers we proposed to navigate in connexion with streams +less "canalizé," so I had to begin again as usual, without any knowledge +of the way. + +With rather an ill-tempered "adieu" to Mulhouse, the Rob Roy set off +again on its voyage. The water assumed quite a new aspect, now that one +_must_ go by it, but it was not so much the water as the locks which +were objectionable. For at each of these there is a certain form of +operations to be gone through--all very trifling and without variety, +yet requiring to be carefully performed, or you may have the boat +injured, or a ducking for yourself. + +When we get to a lock I have to draw to the bank, open my waterproof +covering, put my package and paddle ashore, then step out and haul the +boat out of the water. By this time two or three persons usually +congregate. I select the most likely one, and ask him to help in such a +persuasive but dignified manner that he feels it an honour to carry one +end of the boat while I take the other, and so we put her in again above +the barrier, and, if the man looks poor, I give him a few sous. At some +of the locks they asked me for a "carte de permission," or pass for +travelling on their canal, but I laughed the matter off, and when they +pressed it with a "mais monsieur," I kept treating the proposal as a +good joke, until the officials were fairly baffled and gave in. The fact +is, we had got into the canal as one gets over the hedge on to a public +road, and as I did not use any of the water in locks or any of the +lock-keepers' time, and the "pass" was a mere form, price 5_d._, it was +but reasonable to go unquestioned; and besides, this "carte" could not +be obtained except at the beginning. Having set off late, we went on +until about sunset, when the route suddenly passed into the river Ill, +a long dull stream, which flows through the Vosges into the Rhine. + +This stream was now quite stagnant, and a mere collection of pools +covered by thick scum. It was therefore a great comfort to have only a +short voyage upon it. + +When the Rob Roy again entered the canal, an acquaintance was formed +with a fine young lad, who was reading as he sauntered along. He was +reading of canoe adventures in America, and so I got him to walk some +miles beside me, and to help the boat over some locks, telling him he +could thus see how different actual canoeing was from the book stories +about it made up of romance! He was pining for some expansion of his +sphere, and specially for foreign travel, and above all to see England. + +We went to an _auberge_, where I ordered a bottle of wine, the cost of +which was twopence halfpenny. After he left, and as it was now dark, I +halted, put my boat in a lock-keeper's house, and made his son conduct +me to the little village of Illfurth, a most unsophisticated place +indeed, with a few vineyards on a hill behind it, though the railway has +a road station near. It was not easy to mistake which was the best house +here even in the dark, so I inquired of Madame at "The White Horse" if +she could give me a bed. "Not in a room for one alone; three others will +be sleeping in the same chamber." + +This she had answered after glancing at my puny package and travel-worn +dress, but her ideas about the guest were enlarged when she heard of how +he had come, and so she managed (they always do if you give time and +smiles and show sketches) to allot me a nice little room to myself, with +two beds of the hugest size, a water-jug of the most minute dimensions, +and sheets very coarse and very clean. Another omelette was consumed +while the customary visitors surrounded the benighted traveller; +carters, porters, all of them with courteous manners, and behaving so +well to me and to one another, and talking such good sense, as to make +me feel how different from this is the noisy taproom of a roadside +English "public." + +Presently two fine fellows of the Gendarmerie came in for their half +bottle of wine, at one penny, and as both of them had been in the Crimea +there was soon ample subject for most interesting conversation. This was +conducted in French, but the people here usually speak a patois utterly +impossible for one to comprehend. I found they were discussing me under +various conjectures, and they settled at last that I must be rather an +odd fish, but certainly "a gentleman," and probably "noble." They were +most surprised to hear I meant to stop all the next day at Illfurth, +simply because it was Sunday, but they did not fail to ask for my +passport, which until this had been carried all the way without a single +inquiry on the subject. + +The sudden change from a first-rate hotel this morning to the roadside +inn at Illfurth, was more entertaining on account of its variety than +for its agreeables; but in good health and good weather one can put up +with anything. + +The utter silence of peaceful and cool night in a place like this reigns +undisturbed until about four o'clock in early morn, when the first sound +is some matutinal cock, who crows first because he is proud of being +first awake. After he has asserted his priority thus once or twice, +another deeper toned rooster replies, and presently a dozen cocks are +all in full song, and in different keys. In half an hour you hear a +man's voice; next, some feminine voluble remarks; then a latch is moved +and clicks, the dog gives a morning bark, and a horse stamps his foot in +the stable because the flies have aroused to breakfast on his tender +skin. At length a pig grunts, his gastric juice is fairly awake, the day +is begun. And so the stream of life, thawed from its sleep, flows +gently on again, and at length the full tide of village business is soon +in agitation, with men's faces and women's quite as full of import as if +this French Stoke Pogis were the capital of the world. + +While the inmates prepare for early mass, and my bowl of coffee is set +before me, there are four dogs, eight cats, and seven canaries (I +counted them) all looking on, moving, twittering, mewing, each evidently +sensible that a being from some other land is present among them; and as +these little pets look with doubtful inquiring eyes on the stranger, +there is felt more strongly by him too, "Yes, I am in a foreign +country." + +On Sunday I had a quiet rest, and walk, and reading, and an Englishman, +who had come out for a day from Mulhouse to fish, dined in the pleasant +arbour of the inn with his family. One of his girls managed to fall into +a deep pond and was nearly drowned, but I heard her cries, and we soon +put her to rights. This Briton spoke with quite a foreign accent, having +been six years in France; but his Lancashire dialect reappeared in +conversation, and he said he had just been reading about the canoe in a +Manchester paper. His children had gone that morning to a Sunday-school +before they came out by railway to fish in the river here; but I could +not help contrasting their rude manners with the good behaviour of the +little "lady and gentleman" children of my host. One of these, +Philibert, was very intelligent, and spent an hour or two with me, so we +became great friends. He asked all kinds of questions about England and +America, far more than I was able to answer. I gave him a little book +with a picture in it, that he might read it to his father, for it +contained the remarkable conversation between Napoleon and his Marshal +at St. Helena concerning the Christian religion, a paper well worth +reading, whoever spoke the words. + +This Sunday being an annual village fête a band played, and some very +uncouth couples waltzed the whole day. Large flocks of sheep, following +their shepherds, wandered over the arid soil. The poor geese, too, were +flapping their wings in vain as they tried to swim in water an inch +deep, where usually there had been pleasant pools in the river. I +sympathized with the geese, for I missed my river sadly too. + +My bill here for the two nights, with plenty to eat and drink, amounted +to five shillings in all, and I left good Madame Nico with some regret, +starting again on the canal, which looked more dully and dirty than +before. + +After one or two locks this sort of travelling became so insufferable +that I suddenly determined to change my plans entirely--for is not one +free? By the present route several days would be consumed in going over +the hills by a series of tedious locks; besides, this very canal had +been already traversed by the four-oar boat Waterwitch some years ago. + +A few moments of thought, and I got on the bank to look for a way of +deliverance. Far off could be seen the vine-clad hills of the Vosges, +and I decided at once to leave the canal, cross the country to those +hills, cart the canoe over the range, and so reach the source of the +Moselle, and thus begin to paddle on quite another set of rivers. We +therefore turned the prow back, went down the canal, and again entered +the river Ill, but soon found it was now too shallow to float even my +canoe. Once more I retraced my way, ascending the locks, and, passing by +Illfurth, went on to reach a village where a cart could be had. +Desperation made me paddle hard even in the fierce sun, but it was not +that this so much troubled me as the humiliation of thus rowing back and +forward for miles on a dirty, stagnant canal, and passing by the same +locks two or three times, with the full conviction that the people who +gazed at the procedure must believe me not only to be mad (this much one +can put up with), but furiously insane, and dangerous to be at large. + +Whether we confess it or not we all like to be admired. The right or +wrong of this depends on for what and from whom we covet admiration. But +when the deed you attract attention by is neither a great one, nor a +deed which others have not done or cannot do, but is one that all other +people could but would not do, then you are not admired as remarkable +but only stared at as singular. + +The shade of a suspicion that this is so in any act done before +lookers-on is enough to make it hateful. Nay, you have then the +sufferings of a martyr, without his cause or his glory. But I fear that +instead of getting a cart for the canoe I am getting out of depth in +metaphysics, which means, you know, "When ane maun explains till anither +what he disna understaun himsel, that's metapheesics." + +Well, when we came to the prescribed village, named Haidwiller, we found +they had plenty of carts, but not one would come to help me even for a +good round sum. It was their first day with the grapes, and "ancient +customs must be observed"; so we went on still further to another +village, where they were letting out the water from the canal to repair +a lock. + +[Illustration: "The Rob Roy on wheels."] + +Here was a position of unenviable repose for the poor Rob Roy! No water +to float in, and no cart to carry her. + +To aid deliberation I attacked a large cake of hot flour baked by the +lock-keeper's dirty wife, and we stuck plums in it to make it go down, +while the man hied off to the fields to get some animal that could drag +a clumsy vehicle--cart is too fine a name for it--which I had impressed +from a ploughman near. + +The man came back leading a gloomy-looking bullock, and we started with +the boat now travelling on wheels, but at a most dignified pace.[XXIX.] + + [XXIX.] The sketch represents the lady cow which dragged the cart + at Lauffenburg, but it will do almost equally well for the present + equipage. + +This was the arrangement till we reached another village, which had no +vineyards, and where therefore we soon found a horse, instead of the +gruff bullock; while the natives were lost in amazement to see a boat in +a cart, and a big foreigner gabbling beside it. + +The sun was exceedingly hot, and the road dusty; but I felt the walk +would be a pleasant change, though my driver kept muttering to himself +about my preference of pedestrianism to the fearful jolts of his cart. + +We passed thus through several villages on a fine fruitful plain, and at +some of them the horse had to bait, or the driver to lunch, or his +employer to refresh the inner man, in every case the population being +favoured with an account by the driver of all he knew about the boat, +and a great deal more. + +At one of the inns on the road some new wine was produced on the table. +It had been made only the day before, and its colour was exactly like +that of cold tea, with milk and sugar in it, while its taste was very +luscious and sweet. This new wine is sometimes in request, but +especially among the women. "Corn shall make the young men cheerful, and +new wine the maids." (Zech. ix. 17.) + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + Bonfire--My wife--Matthews--Tunnel + picture--Imposture--Fancy--Moselle--Cocher--"Saturday Review" + Tracts--Gymnastics--The paddle--A spell--Overhead--Feminine + forum--Public breakfast. + + +As evening came on the little flag of the Rob Roy, which was always +hoisted, even in a cart, showed signs of animation, being now revived by +a fresh breeze from the beautiful Vosges mountains when we gradually +brought their outline more distinctly near. + +Then we had to cross the river Thur, but that was an easy matter in +these scorching days of drought. So the cavalcade went on till, the high +road being reached, we drove the cart into the pretty town of Thann. The +driver insisted on going to _his_ hotel, but when there I saw it could +not be the best in a town of this size (experience quickens perception +in these matters), and I simply took the reins, backed out of the yard, +and drove to a better one. + +Here the hotel-keeper had read of the Rob Roy, so it was received with +all the honours, and the best of his good things was at my disposal. In +the evening I burned some magnesium-wire signals to amuse the rustics, +who came in great crowds along the roads, drawing home their +bullock-carts, well loaded with large vats full of the new grapes, and +singing hoarsely as they waved aloft flowers and garlands and danced +around them,--the rude rejoicings for a bounteous vine harvest. It is +remarkable how soon the good singing of Germany is lost trace of when +you cross into France, though the language of the peasant here was +German enough. + +At night we went to see an experiment in putting out fires. A large +bonfire was lighted in the market-place, and the inventor of the new +apparatus came forward, carrying on his back a vessel full of water, +under the pressure of "six atmospheres" of carbonic acid gas. He +directed this on the fire from a small squirt at the end of a tube, and +it was certainly most successful in immediately extinguishing the +flames.[XXX.] This gentleman and other _savants_ of the town then visited +the boat, and the usual entertainment of the sketch-book closed a +pleasant day, which had begun with every appearance of being the +reverse. + + [XXX.] This invention, l'Extincteur, has since been exhibited in + London, and it seems to be a valuable one. + +Although this is a busy place, I found only one book-shop in it, and +that a very bad one. A priest and two nuns were making purchases there, +and I noticed that more images and pictures than printed books were kept +for sale. + +Next morning a new railroad enabled me to take the boat a little further +into the hills; but they fought hard to make her go separate, that is, +in a "merchandise" train, though I said the boat was "my wife," and +could not travel alone. At last they put their wise heads together, +filled up five separate printed forms, charged double fare, and the +whole thing cost me just ninepence. Verily, the French are still +overloaded with forms, and are still in the straitwaistcoat of +_système_. The railway winds among green hills, while here and there a +"fabrik," or factory, nestles in a valley, or illumines a hill-side at +night with its numerous windows all lighted up. These are the chief +depôts of that wonderful industry of taste which spreads the shawls and +scarfs of France before the eyes of an admiring world, for ladies to +covet, and for their husbands to buy. I was informed that the designs +for patterns here cost large sums, as if they were the oil paintings of +the first masters, and that three times as much is paid in France for +cutting one in wood as will be given by an English manufacturer. + +At Wesserling we managed to mount the Rob Roy on a spring vehicle, and +we set off gaily up the winding road that passes the watershed of the +Vosges mountains. I never had a more charming drive. For six hours we +were among woods, vineyards, bright rivulets, and rich pastures. Walking +up a hill, we overtook a carriage, and found one of the occupants was an +Englishman. But he had resided in France for more than twenty years, and +really I could scarcely understand his English. He spoke of "dis ting," +and "ve vill go," and frequently mingled French and German words with +his native tongue. In a newspaper article here we noticed after the name +"Matthews," the editor had considerately added, "pronounced, in English, +Massious." This is well enough for a Frenchman, but it certainly is +difficult to conceive how a man can fail in pronouncing our "th," if he +is a real live Englishman. When he found out my name, he grasped my +hand, and said how deeply interested he had been in a pamphlet written +by one of the same name.[XXXI.] + + [XXXI.] The Loss of the Kent East Indiaman by Fire in the Bay of + Biscay, by General Sir D. Macgregor, K.C.B. (Religious Tract Society, + Paternoster-row.) See a further note on this in the Appendix. + +The spring carriage had been chartered as an expensive luxury in this +cheap tour, that is to say, my boat and myself were to be carried about +thirty-five miles in a comfortable four-wheeled vehicle for twenty-six +francs--not very dear when you consider that it saved a whole day's time +to me and a whole day's jolting to the canoe, which seemed to enjoy its +soft bed on the top of the cushion, and to appreciate very well the +convenience of springs. After a good hard pull up a winding road we got +to the top of the pass of this "little Switzerland," as it is called, +and here was a tunnel on the very crest of the watershed. + +The arch of this dark tunnel made an excellent frame to a magnificent +picture; for before me was stretched out broad France. All streams at +our back went down to the all-absorbing Rhine, but those in front would +wend their various ways, some to the Mediterranean, others into the Bay +of Biscay, and the rest into the British Channel. + +A thousand peaks and wooded knolls were on this side and that, while a +dim panorama of five or six villages and sunny plains extended before +us. This was the chain of the Vosges mountains and their pleasant vales, +where many valorous men have been reared. The most noted crusaders came +from this district, and from here too the first of the two great +Napoleons drew the best soldiers of his army.[XXXII.] Most of the community +are Protestants. + + [XXXII.] The giant called "Anak," who has been exhibiting in London, + is from the Vosges mountains. + +High up on one side of us was a pilgrim station, where thousands of +people come year by year, and probably they get fine fresh air and +useful exercise. The French seem to walk farther for superstitious +purposes than for mere pedestrian amusement.[XXXIII.] + + [XXXIII.] Among other celebrated French "stations" there is the + mountain of La Salette, near Grenoble, where, even in one day, 16,000 + pilgrims have ascended to visit the spot where the Virgin Mary was said + to have spoken to some shepherds. On the occasion of my pilgrimage there + I met some donkeys with panniers bringing down holy water (in lemonade + bottles) which was sold throughout Europe for a shilling a bottle, until + a priest at the bottom of the mountain started a private pump of his + own. The woman who had been hired to personate the Holy Saint confessed + the deception, and it was exploded before the courts of law in a report + which I read on the spot; but the Roman Catholic papers, even in + England, published attractive articles to support this flagrant + imposture, and its truth and goodness were vehemently proclaimed in a + book by the Romish Bishop of Birmingham, with the assent of the Pope. + Methinks it is easier to march barefoot 100 miles over sharp stones than + to plod your honest walk of life on common pavement and with strong + soled boots. + +My English friend now got into my carriage, and we drove a little way +from the road to the village of Bussang to see the source of the +Moselle. + +This river rises under the "Ballon d'Alsace," a lofty mountain with a +rounded top, and the stream consists at first of four or five very tiny +trickling rivulets which unite and come forth in a little spring well +about the size of a washing-tub, from which the water flows across the +road in a channel that you can bridge with your fingers. + +But this bubbling brook had great interest for me, as I meant to follow +its growth until it would be strong enough to bear me on its cool, clear +water, now only like feathers strewed among the grass, and singing its +first music very pretty and low. + +We like to see the source of a great river; a romantic man must have +much piquant thought at the sight, and a poetic man must be stirred by +its sentiment. Every great thought must also have had a source or germ, +and it would be interesting to know how and when some of the grand ideas +that have afterwards aroused nations first thrilled in the brain of a +genius, a warrior, a philosopher, or a statesman. And besides having a +source, each stream of thought has a current too, with ripples and deep +pools, and scenery as it were around. Some thoughts are lofty, others +broad; some are straight, and others round about; some are rushing, +while others glide peacefully; only a few are clear and deep. + +But this is not the place to launch upon fancy's dreams, or even to +describe the real, pretty valleys around us in the Vosges. We go through +these merely to find water for the Rob Roy, and in this search we keep +descending every hour. + +When the bright stars came out they glittered below thick trees in pools +of the water now so quickly become a veritable river, and I scanned each +lagoon in the darkness to know if still it was too small for the boat. + +We came to the town of Remiremont and to a bad sort of inn, where all +was disorder and dirt. The driver sat down with me to a late supper and +behaved with true French politeness, which always shows better in +company than in private, or when real self-denial or firm friendship is +to be tested. So he ate of his five different courses, and had his wine, +fruit, and neat little etceteras, and my bill next day for our united +entertainment and lodging was just 3_s._ 4_d._ + +This _cocher_ was an intelligent man, and conversed on his own range of +subjects with considerable tact, and when our conversation was turned +upon the greater things of another world he said, "They must be happy +there, for none of them have ever come back"--a strange thought, oddly +phrased. As he became interested in the subject I gave him a paper upon +it, which he at once commenced to read aloud.[XXXIV.] + + [XXXIV.] Some days previously a stranger gave me a bundle of papers + to read, for which I thanked him much. Afterwards at leisure I examined + the packet, which consisted of about thirty large pages sewn together, + and comprising tracts upon politics, science, literature, and religion. + The last subject was prominent, and was dealt with in a style clever, + caustic, and censorious, which interested me much. These tracts were + printed in England and with good paper and type. They are a weekly + series, distributed everywhere at six shillings a dozen, and each page + is entitled "The Saturday Review." + +Next morning, the 20th of September, the Rob Roy was brought to the door +in a handcart, and was soon attended by its usual levee. + +As we had come into the town late at night the gazers were ignorant of +any claims this boat might have upon their respect, and some of them +derided the idea of its being able to float on the river here, or at any +rate to go more than a mile or two. + +But having previously taken a long walk before breakfast to examine the +Moselle, I was convinced it could be begun even here and in this dry +season. The porter was therefore directed to go forward, and the boat +moved towards the river amid plaudits rather ambiguous, until a curious +old gentleman, with green spectacles and a white hat, kindly brought the +sceptical mob to their senses by telling them he had read often about +the boat, and they must not make fun of it now. + +Then they all chopped round and changed their minds in a moment--the +fickle French--and they helped me with a will, and carried the Rob Roy +about a mile to the spot fixed upon for the start, which was speedily +executed, with a loud and warm "Adieu!" and "Bon voyage!" from all the +spectators. + +It was pleasant again to grasp the paddle and to find pure clear water +below, which I had not seen since the Danube, and to have a steady +current alongside that was so much missed on the sluggish river Ill and +the Basel Canal. + +Pretty water flowers quivered in the ripples round the mossy stones, and +park-like meadows sloped to the river with fruit trees heavy laden. +After half an hour of congratulation that we had come to the Moselle +rather than the Saone and the Doubs, I settled down to my day's work +with cheerfulness. + +The water of this river was very clear and cool, meandering through long +deep pools, and then over gurgling shallows; and the fish, waterfowl, +woods, and lovely green fields were a most welcome change from the canal +we had left. The sun was intensely hot, but the spare "jib," as a shawl +on my shoulders, defied its fierce rays, and so I glided along in +solitary enjoyment. The numerous shallows required much activity with +the paddle, and my boat got more bumped and thumped to-day than in any +other seven days of the tour. Of course I had often to get out and to +tow her through the water; sometimes through the fields, or over rocks, +but this was easily done with canvas shoes on, and flannel trousers that +are made for constant ducking. + +The aspect of the river was rather of a singular character for some +miles, with low banks sloping backwards, and richly carpeted with grass, +so that the view on either side was ample; while in front was a spacious +picture of successive levels, seen to great advantage as the Rob Roy +glided smoothly on crystal waters lipped with green. Again the playful +river descends by sudden leaps and deep falls, chiefly artificial, and +some trouble is caused in getting down each of these, for the boat had +to be lowered by hand, with a good deal of gymnastic exercise among the +slippery rocks; the mosses and lichens were studied in anything but +botanical order. + +At this period of the voyage the paddle felt so natural in my hands from +long use of it every day, that it was held unconsciously. In the +beginning of my practice I had invented various tethers and ties to +secure this all-important piece of furniture from being lost if it +should fall overboard, and I had practised what ought to be done if the +paddle should ever be beaten out of my hand by a wave, or dropped into +the water in a moment of carelessness. + +But none of these plans were satisfactory in actual service. The strings +got entangled when I jumped out suddenly, or I forgot the thing was tied +when it had to be thrown out on the shore, so it was better to have the +paddle perfectly loose; and thus free, it never was dropped or lost hold +of even in those times of difficulty or confusion which made twenty +things to be done, and each to be done first, when an upset was +imminent, and a jump out had to be managed instead.[XXXV.] + + [XXXV.] The bamboo mast was meant originally to serve also as a + boat-hook or hitcher, and had a ferrule and a fishing gaff neatly + fastened on the end, which fitted also into the mast step. I recollect + having used the boat-hook once at Gravesend, but it was instantly seen + to be a mistake. You don't want a boat-hook when your canoe can come + close alongside where it is deep, and will ground when it is shallow. + Besides, to use a boat-hook you must drop the paddle. + +The movement of the paddle, then, got to be almost involuntary, just as +the legs are moved in walking, and the ordinary difficulties of a river +seemed to be understood by the mind without special observation, and to +be dealt with naturally, without hesitation or reasoning as to what +ought to be done. This faculty increased until long gazes upwards to +the higher grounds or to the clouds were fully indulged without +apparently interrupting the steady and proper navigation of the boat, +even when it was moving with speed. On one of these occasions I had got +into a train of thought on this subject, and was regretting that the +course of the stream made me turn my back on the best scenery. I had +spun round two or three times to feast my eyes once more and again upon +some glowing peaks, lit up by the setting sun, until a sort of +fascination seized the mind, and a quiet lethargy crept over the system; +and, moreover, a most illogical persuasion then settled that the boat +always _did_ go right, and that one need not be so much on the alert to +steer well. This still held me as we came into a cluster of about a +dozen rocks all dotted about, and with the stream welling over this one +and rushing over that, and yet I was spellbound and doggedly did nothing +to guide the boat's course. + +But the water was avenged on this foolish defiance of its power, for in +a moment I was driven straight on a great rock, only two inches below +the surface, and the boat at once swung round, broadside on to the +current, and then slowly but determinedly began to turn over. As it +canted more and more my lax muscles were rudely aroused to action, for +the plain fact stared out baldly that I was about to get a regular +ducking, and all from a stupid, lazy fit. + +The worst of it was I was not sitting erect, but stretched almost at +full length in the boat, and one leg was entangled inside by the strap +of my bag. In the moments following (that seem minutes in such a case) a +gush of thoughts went through the mind while the poor little boat was +still turning over, until at last I gave a spring from my awkward +position to jump into the water. + +The jerk released the canoe from the rock, but only the head and arms of +its captain fell into the river--though in a most undignified _pose_, +which was soon laughed off, when my seat was recovered, with a wet head +and dripping sleeves! + +However, this little _faux pas_ quite wakened and sobered me, and I +looked in half shame to the bank to see if any person had witnessed the +absurd performance. And it was well to have done with sentiment and +reveries, for the river had now got quite in earnest about going along. + +Permit me again to invite attention to the washerwomen on the river; for +this institution, which one does not find thus floating on our streams +in England, becomes a very frequent object of interest if you canoe it +on the Continent. + +[Illustration: "Washing Barge."] + +As the well in Eastern countries is the recognised place for gossiping, +and in colder climes a good deal of politics is settled in the barber's +shop, so here in fluvial districts the washing barge is the forum of +feminine eloquence. + +The respectability of a town as you approach it is shadowed forth by the +size and ornaments of the _blanchisseuses'_ float; and as there are +often fifty faces seen at once, the type of female loveliness may be +studied for a district at a time. While they wash they talk, and while +they talk they thump and belabour the clothes; but there is always some +idle eye wandering which speedily will catch sight of the Rob Roy canoe. + +In smaller villages, and where there is no barge for them to use, the +women have to do without one, and kneel on the ground, so that even in +far-off parts of the river we shall find them there. + +A flat sounding whack! whack! tells me that round the corner we shall +come upon at least a couple of washerwomen, homely dames, with brown +faces and tall caps, who are wringing, slapping, and scrubbing the +"linge." Though this may encourage the French cotton trade, I rejoice +that my own shirts are of strong woollen stuff, which defies their +buffeting. + +I always fraternized with these ladies, doffing my hat, and drawing back +my left foot for a bow (though the graceful action is not observed under +the macintosh). Other travellers, also, may find there is something to +be seen and heard if they pass five minutes at the washing-barge. But +even if it were not instructive and amusing thus to study character when +a whole group is met with at once, surely it is to be remembered that +the pleasure of seeing a new sight and of hearing a foreigner speak +cheerful and kind words, is to many of these hard-working, honest +mothers a bright interlude in a life of toil. To give pleasure is one of +the best pleasures of a tourist; and it is in acting thus, too, that +the lone traveller feels no loneliness, while he pleases and is pleased. +Two Englishmen may travel together agreeably among foreigners for a week +without learning so much of the life, and mind, and manners of the +people as would be learned in one day if each of the tourists went +alone, provided he was not too shy or too proud to open his eyes, and +ears, and mouth among strangers, and had sense enough to be an exception +to the rule that "Every Englishman is an island." + +Merely for a change, I ran the Rob Roy into a long millrace in search of +breakfast. This stream having secured hold of the boat stealthily ran +away with us in a winding course among the hayfields, and quite out of +reach of the river, until it seemed that after all we were only in a +streamlet for irrigation, which would vanish into rills an inch deep in +a water meadow. However, I put a bold face on it, and gravely and +swiftly sped through the fields, and bestowed a nod now and then on the +rural gazers. A fine boy of twelve years old soon trotted alongside, and +I asked him if he was an honest lad, which he answered by a blush, and +"Yes." "Here is a franc, then. Go and buy me bread and wine, and meet me +at the mill." A few of the "hands" soon found out the canoe, moored, as +it was thought, in quiet retirement, with its captain resting under a +tree, and presently a whole crowd of them swarmed out, and shouted with +delight as they pressed round to see. + +The boy brought a very large bottle of wine, and a loaf big enough to +dine four men; and I set to work with an oarsman's appetite, and that +happy _sang froid_ which no multitude of gazers now could disturb. + +However, one of the party invited me into her house, and soon set +delicate viands before the new guest, while the others filled the room +in an instant, and were replaced by sets of fifty at a time, all very +good-humoured and respectful. + +But it was so hot and bustling here that I resolved to go away and have +a more pleasant and sulky meal by myself on some inaccessible island. +The retreat through the crowd had to be regularly prepared for by +military tactics; so I appointed four of the most troublesome boys as +"policemen" to guard the boat in its transit across the fields, but they +discharged their new duties with such vigour that two little fellows +were soon knocked over into the canoe, and so we launched off, while the +Manager of the factory called in vain to his cottonspinners, who were +all now in full cry after the boat, and were making holiday without +leave. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + River Moselle--Epinal--The Tramp--Halcyon--Painted + woman--Beating to quarters--Boat in a hedge--The + Meurthe--Moving House--Tears of a mother--Five francs. + + +Under a dark arbour-like arch of foliage, where the water was deep and +still, I made fast to the long grass, cast my tired limbs into the +fantastic folds of ease, and, while the bottle lasted and the bread, I +watched the bees and butterflies, and the beetles and rats, and the +coloured tribes of airy and watery life that one can see so well in a +quiet half hour like this. + +How little we are taught at school about these wondrous communities of +real life, each with its laws and instincts, its beauties of form, and +marvellous ingenuities! + +How little of flowers and insects, not to say of trees and animals, a +boy learns as school-lessons, while he has beaten into him at one end +and crammed in at the other the complicated politics of heathen gods, +and their loves and faction fights, which are neither real nor possible. + +The Moselle rapidly enlarged in volume, though one could easily see +that it had seldom been so low before. It is a very beautiful river to +row on, especially where we began. Then it winds to the west and north, +and again, turning a little eastwards, traverses a lovely country +between Treves and Coblentz, where it joins the ancient Rhine. + +My resting-place for this evening was Epinal, a town with little to +interest; and so we could turn to books and pencils until it was time +for bed. + +Next day the scenery was by no means so attractive, but I had plenty of +hard work, which was enjoyed very much, my shoes and socks being off all +day, for it was useless to put them on when so many occasions required +me to jump out. + +Here it was a plain country, with a gravel soil, and fast rushings of +current; and then long pools like the Serpentine, and winding turns +leading entirely round some central hill which the river insisted upon +circumventing. + +At noon we came upon a large number of labourers at work on a milldam, +and as this sort of crowd generally betokens something to eat (always, +at any rate, some drinkable fluid), I left my boat boldly in mid-stream, +and knocked at a cottage, when an old woman came out. "Madame, I am +hungry, and you are precisely the lady who can make me an omelette." + +"Sir, I have nothing to give you." + +"Why," said I, "look at these hens; I am sure they have laid six eggs +this morning, they seem so conceited." + +She evidently thought I was a tramp demanding alms, and when told to +look at the boat which had come from England, she said she was too old +and too blind to see. However, we managed to make an omelette together, +and she stood by (with an eye, perhaps, to her only fork) and chatted +pleasantly, asking, "What have you got to sell?" I told her I had come +there only for pleasure. "What sort of pleasure, Monsieur, can you +possibly hope to find in _this_ place?" But I was far too gallant to say +bluntly that her particular mansion was not the ultimate object of the +tour. After receiving a franc for the rough breakfast, she kept up a +battery of blessings till the Rob Roy started, and she ended by +shrieking out to a navvy looking on, "I tell you every Englishman is +rich!" + +Next day was bright and blue-skyed as before, and an early start got the +fine fresh morning air on the water. + +The name of this river is sometimes pronounced "Moselle," and at other +times "Mosel," what we should call "Mozle." When a Frenchman speaks of +"la Moselle," he puts an equal emphasis on each of the three syllables +he is pronouncing; whereas generally we Englishmen call this river +Mosélle. + +The name of a long river often indeed goes through changes as it +traverses various districts and dialects; for instance, the Missouri, +which you hear the travellers in Kansas call "Mzoory," while they wend +along the Californian road. + +When the scenery is tame to the canoist, and the channel of the river is +not made interesting by dangers to be avoided, then one can always turn +again to the animals and birds, and five minutes of watching will be +sure to see much that is curious. + +Here, for instance, we have the little kingfisher again, who had met us +on the Danube and the Reuss, and whom we knew well in England before; +but now we are on a visit to _his_ domain, and we see him in his private +character alone. There are several varieties of this bird, and they +differ in form and colour of plumage. This "Royal bird," the _Halcyon_ +of antiquity, the _Alcedo_ in classic tongue, is called in German "Eis +fogl," or "Ice bird," perhaps because he fishes even in winter's frost, +or because his nest is like a bundle of icicles, being made of minnows' +bones most curiously wrought together. + +But now it is on a summer day, and he is perched on a twig within two +inches of the water, and under the shade of a briar leaf, his little +parasol. He is looking for fish, and is so steady that you may easily +pass him without observing that brilliant back of azure, or the breast +of blushing red. + +When I desired to see these birds, I quietly moved my boat till it +grounded on a bank, and, after it was stationary thus for a few minutes, +the Halcyon fisher got quite unconcerned, and plied his task as if +unseen. + +He peers with knowing eye into the shallow below him, and now and then +he dips his head a bit to make quite sure he has marked a fish worth +seizing; then suddenly he darts down with a spluttering splash, and +flies off with a little white minnow, or a struggling sticklebat nipped +in his beak. + +If it is caught thus crosswise, the winged fisherman tosses his prey +into the air, and nimbly catches it in his mouth, so that it may be +gulped down properly. Then he quivers and shakes with satisfaction, and +quickly speeds to another perch, flitting by you with wonderful +swiftness, as if a sapphire had been flung athwart the sunbeam, flashing +beauteous colours in its flight. + +Or, if bed-time has come, or he is fetching home the family dinner, he +flutters on and on, and then with a little sharp note of "good-bye," +pops into a hole, the dark staircase to his tiny nest, and there he +finds Mrs. Halcyon sitting in state, and thirteen baby Kingfishers +gaping for the dainty fish. + +This pretty bird has an air of quiet mystery, beauty, and vivid motion, +all combined, which has made him a favourite with the Rob Roy. + +Strangely enough, the river in this part of its course actually gets +less and less as you descend it. Every few miles some of the water is +drawn off by a small canal to irrigate the neighbouring land, and in a +season of drought like this, very little of the abstracted part returns. +They told me that the Moselle river never has been so "basse" for 30 +years, and I was therefore an unlucky _voyageur_ in having to do for the +first time what could have been done more easily in any other season. + +As evening fell we reached the town of Chatel, and the Rob Roy was sent +to bed in the washhouse of the hotel. But five minutes had not elapsed +before a string of visitors came for the daily inspection of the boat. + +As I sauntered along the bridge a sprightly youth came up, who had not +seen the canoe, but who knew I was "one of her crew." He was most +enthusiastic on the subject, and took me to see _his_ boat, a +deadly-looking flat-bottomed open cot, painted all manner of patterns; +and as he was extremely proud of her I did not tell him that a boat is +like a woman, too good to paint: a pretty one is spoiled by paint, and a +plain one is made hideous. + +Then he came for a look at the Rob Roy, and, poor fellow, it was amusing +to observe how instantly his countenance fell from pride to intense +envy. He had a "boating mind," but had never seen a really pretty boat +till now. However, to console himself he invited me to another hotel to +drink success to the canoe in Bavarian beer, and to see my drawings, and +then I found that my intelligent, eager, and, we may add, gentlemanly +friend was the waiter there! + +A melancholy sensation pervaded the Rob Roy to-day, in consequence of a +sad event, the loss of the captain's knife. We had three knives on board +in starting from England; one had been given away in reward for some +signal service, and this which was now lost was one with a metal haft +and a curious hook at the end, a special description made in Berlin, and +very useful to the tourist. It is not to be wondered that in so many +leaps and somersaults, and with such constant requirements for the knife +to mend pencils, &c., &c., the trusty blade should at last have +disappeared, but the event suggests to the next canoeman that his +boat-knife should be secured to a lanyard. + +One singular conformation of the river-bed occurred in my short tour +upon this part of the Moselle. Without much warning the banks of rock +became quite vertical and narrowed close together. They reminded me of +the rock-cutting near Liverpool, on the old railway to Manchester. The +stream was very deep here, but its bed was full of enormous stones and +crags, very sharp and jagged, which, however, could be easily avoided, +because the current was gentle. + +A man I found fishing told me that a little further on there was an +"impossible" place, so when after half a mile the well-known sound of +rushing waters came (the ear got marvellous quick for this), we beat to +quarters and prepared for action. + +The ribbon to keep my hat was tied down. Sleeves and trousers were +tucked up. The covering was braced tight and the baggage secured below; +and then came the eager pleasures of anticipating, wishing, hoping, +fearing, that are mixed up in the word excitement. + +The sound was quite near now, but the river took the strangest of all +the forms I had yet seen. + +If you suppose a trench cut along Oxford-street to get at the +gas-pipes, and if all the water of a river which had filled the street +before suddenly disappeared in the trench, that would be exactly what +the Moselle had now become. + +The plateau of rock on each side was perfectly dry, though in flood +times, no doubt, the river covers that too. The water boiled and foamed +through this channel from 3 to 20 feet deep, but only in the trench, +which was not five feet wide. + +An intelligent man came near to see me enter this curious passage, but +when we had got a little way in I had to stop the boat, and this too by +putting my hands on both sides of the river! + +Then I got out and carefully let the boat drive along the current, but +still held by the painter. Soon it got too narrow and fast even for this +process, so I pulled the canoe upon the dry rock, and sat down to +breathe and to cool my panting frame. + +Two other gentlemen had come near me by this time, and on a bridge above +were several more with two ladies. + +I had to drag the boat some hundred yards over most awkward rocks, and +these men hovered round and admired, and even talked to me, and actually +praised my perseverance, yet not one offer of any help did any one of +them give! + +In deep water again, and now exactly under the bridge I looked up and +found the whole party regarding the Rob Roy with curiosity and smiles. +Within a few yards was a large house these people had come from, and I +thought their smiles were surely to preface, "Would you not like a glass +of wine, Sir, after your hour of hard work?" But as it meant nothing of +the sort I could not help answering their united adieux! by these words, +"Adieu, ladies and gentlemen. Many to look, but none to help. The +exhibition is gratuitous!" Was it wrong to say this? It was utterly +impossible not to think as much. + +One or two other places gave trouble without interest, such as when I +had to push the boat into a hedge point foremost, and to pull it through +by main force from the other side, and then found, after all, it was +pushed into the wrong field, so the operation had to be done over again +in a reverse direction. + +But never mind, all this counted in the day's work, and all the trouble +of it was forgotten after a good night's sleep, or was entirely +recompensed by some interesting adventure. + +The water of the Moselle is so clear that the scenery under the surface +continually occupied my attention. In one long reach, unusually deep and +quiet, I happened to be gazing down at some huge trout, and +accidentally observed a large stone, the upper part of a fine column, at +the very bottom of the water, at least ten feet below me. The capital +showed it to be Ionic, and near it was another, a broken pediment of +large dimensions, and a little further on a pedestal of white marble. I +carefully examined both banks, to see if a Roman villa or bridge, or +other ruin, indicated how these subaqueous reliques had come into this +strange position, and I inquired diligently at Charmes, the next town; +but although much curiosity was shown on the subject, no information was +obtained, except that the Romans had built a fort somewhere on the river +(but plainly not at that spot), so we may consider that the casual +glance at the fish revealed a curious fragment of the past hitherto +probably unnoticed. + +After pulling along the Moselle, from as near to its source as my canoe +could find water, until the scenery became dull at Charmes, we went by +railway from thence to Blainville, on the river Meurthe, which is a +tributary of the Moselle, for I thought some new scenery might be found +in this direction. The Rob Roy was therefore sent by itself in a +goods-train, the very first separation between us for three months. It +seemed as if the little boat, leaning on its side in the truck, turned +from me reproachfully, and we foreboded all sorts of accidents to its +delicate frame, but the only thing lost was a sponge, a necessary +appendage to a boat's outfit when you desire to keep it perfectly dry +and clean. + +Two railway porters, with much good-humoured laughing, carried the Rob +Roy from the station to the river's edge, and again we paddled cheerily +along, and on a new river, too, with scenery and character quite +different from that of the Moselle. + +The Meurthe winds through rich plains of soft earth, with few rocks and +little gravel. But then in its shallows it has long thick mossy weeds, +all under the surface. These were found to be rather troublesome, +because they got entangled with my paddle, and since they could not be +seen beforehand the best channel was not discernible, as where rocks or +gravel give those various forms of ripples which the captain of a canoe +soon gets to know as if they were a chart telling the number of inches +of depth. Moreover, when you get grounded among these long weeds, all +pointed down stream, it is very difficult to "back out," for it is like +combing hair against the grain. + +The larger rivers in France are all thoroughly fished. In every nook you +find a fisherman. They are just as numerous here as in Germany they are +rare. And yet one would think that fishing is surely more adapted to the +contemplative German than to the vivacious French. Yet, here they are +by hundreds, both men and women, and every day, each staring intently on +a tiny float, or at the grasshopper bait, and quite satisfied if now and +then he can pull up a gudgeon the size of your thumb. + +[Illustration: "French Fishers."] + +Generally, these people are alone, and when they asked me at hotels if I +did not feel lonely in the canoe, the answer was, "Look at your +fishermen, for hours by choice alone. They have something to occupy +attention every moment, and so have I." Sometimes, however, there is a +whole party in one clumsy boat. + +The _pater familias_ sits content, and recks not if all his time is +spent in baiting his line and lighting his pipe. The lazy "hopeful" lies +at full length on the grass, while a younger brother strains every nerve +to hook a knowing fish that is laughing at him under water, and winking +its pale eye to see the fisher just toppling over. Mademoiselle chatters +whether there are bites or not, and another, the fair cousin, has got on +shore, where she can bait her hook and set her cap and simper to the +bold admirer by her side. + +Not one of these that I have spoken to had ever seen an artificial fly. + +Then besides, we have the fishers with nets. These are generally three +men in a boat, with its stem and its stern both cocked up, and the whole +affair looking as if it must upset or sink. Such boats were painted by +Raphael in the great Cartoons, where all of us must have observed how +small the boat is compared with the men it carries. + +Again, there are some young lads searching under the stones for +_ecrevisses_, the freshwater prawns, much in request, but giving very +little food for a great deal of trouble. Near these fishers the pike +plies his busy sportsman's life below the surface, and I have sometimes +seen a poor little trout leap high into the air to escape from the +long-nosed pursuer, who followed him even out of the water, and snapped +his jaws on the sweet morsel impudently. This sound, added to the very +suspicious appearance of the Rob Roy gliding among the islands, decides +the doubtful point with a duck, the leader of a flock of wild ducks that +have been swimming down stream in front of me with a quick glance on +each side, every one of them seemingly indignant at this intrusion on +their haunts; at last they find it really will not do, so with a scream +and a spring they flap the water and rise in a body to seek if there be +not elsewhere at least some one nook to nestle in where John Bull does +not come. + +That bell you hear tinkling is at the ferry, to call the ferryman who +lives at the other side, and he will jump into his clumsy boat, which is +tied to a pulley running on a rope stretched tight across the river. He +has only to put his oar obliquely on the gunwale, and the transverse +pressure of the current brings the boat rapidly to the other bank. + +Paddling on, after a chat with the ferryman (and he is sure to be ready +for that), a wonderful phenomenon appears. We see a house, large, new, +and of two stories high, it has actually moved. We noticed it a few +minutes ago, and now it has changed its position. I gaze in +astonishment, and while we ponder, lo! the whole house entirely +disappears. Now, the true explanation of this is soon found when we get +round the next corner of the reach;--the house is a great wooden bathing +"etablissement," built on a barge, and it is being slowly dragged up the +stream. + +After wonder comes sentiment. Three women are seen on the river-bank +evidently in great alarm: a mother, a daughter, and a servant maid, who +searched in vain for two boys, supposed to have gone away to fish, but +now missing for many hours. They eagerly inquired if I had seen the +lads, and implored me with tears to give them advice. + +I tried all I could to recollect, but no! I had not seen the boys, and +so the women went away distracted, and left me sorrowful--who would not +be so at a woman's tears, a mother's too? But suddenly, when toiling in +the middle of a very difficult piece of rock-work, lowering the boat, I +remembered having seen those boys, so I ran over the fields after the +anxious mamma and soon assured her the children had been safe an hour +ago, and their faithful servant with them, but that _he_ had become the +fisherman, and they, like boys, had got tired of the rod, and were +playing with a goat. + +When the poor mother heard we had seen the little fellows and they were +safe, her tears of joy were quite affecting, and they vividly recalled +one's schoolboy days, when the thoughtless playtime of childhood so +often entails anxiety on a loving mother's heart. + +Such, then, are the river sights and river wonders, ever new, though +trifling perhaps when told, but far more lively and entertaining than +the common incidents of a dusty road, or a whirring, shrieking train. + +With a few wadings and bumpings, and one or two "vannes," or weirs, we +slipped along pleasantly until evening came. Still it was only a slow +stream, and the towers of St. Nicholas, long visible on the horizon, +seemed ever to move from side to side without being any nearer, so much +does this river wind in its course. I paddled at my best pace, but the +evening rapidly grew darker, until we overtook two French youths in a +boat, the first occasion on which we had noticed Frenchmen rowing for +exercise. They could not keep up with the canoe, so we had to leave them +ingloriously aground on a bank, and yet too lazy to get out and help +their boat over the difficulty. + +Soon after I came to a great weir about fifteen feet in height, the +deepest we had yet encountered, and half a sigh was heaved when it was +evident that there was no escape from all the bother of getting out and +gymnasticizing here after a long day's work. It was a matter of some +time and trouble to get the boat over this weir in the dark; but what +was far worse immediately followed, as I found myself in a maze of +shallows, without light to see how to get through them. Whenever we +stopped, too, for rest, there was only darkness, silence, and no +motion--not even the excitement of a current to arouse. Finally, I had +to wade and haul the boat along, and jump in and ferry myself over the +pools, for nearly half a mile, until at length the "look-out" man of our +starboard watch shouted, "A bridge and a house on the lee bow!" and a +joyous cheer burst forth from the crew. + +All this, which may be told in a few sentences, took a full hour of very +tiresome work, though, as there was no current, there was no danger, and +it was merely tedious, wet, unlighted, and uncomfortable. Nevertheless I +sang and whistled all the time. + +When the bridge was arrived at, I was sure it must be a town, and then +there happened a scene almost an exact counterpart of that which took +place at Gegglingen, on the Danube. + +I pulled up my boat on the dark shore, and, all dripping wet, I mounted +to the house above, and speedily aroused the inmates. A window opened, +and a worthy couple appeared in their night-dresses, holding a candle to +examine the intruder. The tableau was most comical. The man asked, "Is +it a farce?" He could scarcely expect a traveller from England to arrive +there at such an hour. But he soon helped me to carry the boat to a +little Restaurant, where a dozen men were drinking, who rushed out with +lamps to look at the boat, but entirely omitted to help the forlorn +captain. + +Nor was there any room in this Restaurant, so we had to carry the boat +through the dark streets to another house, where another lot of topers +received me in like style. We put the Rob Roy into a garden here, and +her sails flapped next morning while a crowd gazed over the walls with +anxious curiosity. The worthy husband who had thus left his spouse that +he might carry my wet boat, all slippery with mud, was highly pleased +with a five-franc piece, which was the least I thought him to deserve, +though it was like a five-pound note to him in such a cheap country. + +Next morning in the light of day we had a survey of the scene of last +night's adventure. It was very amusing to trace the various channels we +had groped about in the darkness. + +Here I met a French gentleman, of gay and pleasant manner, but who +bemoaned his lot as Secretary of a great factory in this outlandish +place, instead of being in joyous, thoughtless, brilliant Paris, where, +he said, often for days together he did not sleep in bed, but ran one +night into the next by balls, theatres, and supper parties. + +He kindly took me to see the great salt works, that send refined salt +all over Europe. This rock salt is hoisted out of a deep mine, in blocks +like those of coal, having been hewn from the strata below, which are +pierced by long and lofty galleries. Then it is covered in tanks by +water, which becomes saturated, and is conducted to flat evaporating +pans, when the water is expelled by the heat of great furnaces, and the +salt appears in masses like snow-drift. Salt that is sold by weight they +judiciously wet again, and other qualities sold by measure they cleverly +deposit in crooked crystals, so as to take up as much space as possible! + +We found a canal here, and as the river was so shallow I mounted to the +artificial channel, and with a strong and fair wind was soon sailing +along rapidly. This canal has plenty of traffic upon it, and only a few +locks; so it was by no means tedious. They asked for my card of +permission, but I smiled the matter off as before. However, an officer +of the canal who was walking alongside looked much more seriously at the +infringement of rules, and when we came to a lock he insisted we must +produce the "carte." As a last resort, I showed him the well-worn +sketch-book, and then he at once gave in. In fact, after he had laughed +at the culprit's caricatures, how could he gravely sentence him to +penalties? + +It is wonderful how a few lines of drawing will please these outlying +country people. Sometimes we gave a small sketch to a man when it was +desirable to get rid of him: he was sure to take it away to show +outside, and when he returned I had departed. Once we gave a little girl +a portrait of her brother, and next morning she brought it again all +crumpled up. Her mother said the child had held it all night in her +hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Ladies in muslin--Officers shouting--Volunteers' + umbrella--Reims--Leaks--Wet--Madame Clicquot--Heavy + blow--Dinner talk--The Elephant--Cloud. + + +The canal brought me to Nancy, a fine old town, with an archbishop, a +field-marshal, a good hotel, large washhand basins, drums, bugles, ices, +and all the other luxuries of life. In the cathedral there was more +tawdry show about the Mass than I ever remarked before, even in Italy. +At least thirty celebrants acted in the performance, and the bowings and +turnings and grimaces of sedate old men clad in gorgeous, dirty +needlework, fumbling with trifles and muttering Latin, really passed all +bounds: they were an insult to the population, who are required to +attend this vicarious worship, and to accept such absurdities as the +true interpretation of "This do in remembrance of Me." + +A large and attentive congregation, nearly all women, listened first to +an eloquent sermon from a young priest who glorified an old saint. It is +possible that the ancient worthy was a most respectable monk, but +probably he was, when he lived, a good deal like the monks one meets in +the monasteries, and now that I have lived pretty frequently with these +gentlemen I must say it makes one smile to think of canonizing such +people, as if any one of them had unapproachable excellence; but perhaps +this monk distinguished himself by proper daily ablutions, and so earned +the rare reputation of being reasonably clean. + +In the afternoon the relics of the monk were borne through the streets +by a procession of some thousand women and a few men. These ladies, some +hundreds of whom were dressed in white muslin, and in two single ranks, +chanted as they slowly marched, and all the bystanders took off their +hats, but I really could not see what adoration was due to the +mouldering bones of a withered friar, so my excellent straw hat was kept +on my head. + +But the French, who live in public, must have a public religion, a +gregarious worship, with demonstrative action and colours and sounds. +Deep devotion, silent in its depth, is for the north and not for this +radiant sun, though you will find that quiet worship again in lower +latitudes where the very heat precludes activity. + +Some twenty years ago, one of the ablest men of the University of +Cambridge read a paper on the influence which the insular position and +the climate of Britain has upon our national character, and it appeared +to be proved clearly that this influence pervades every feature of our +life. + +In a third-rate French town like Nancy, nearly all the pleasant +_agrements_ depend on the climate, and would be sadly curtailed by rain +or snow. So, again, when a Frenchman visits England and gets laughed at +for mistakes in our difficult language, and has to eat only two dishes +for dinner, and drinks bad coffee, and has no evening lounge in the open +air, and is then told to look at our domestic life, and finds he cannot +get an entrance there (for how very few French do enter there), his +miseries are directly caused by our climate, and no wonder his +impression of Albion is that we are all fog and cotton and smoke, and +everything _triste_. + +From Nancy we sent the canoe by rail to meet me on the river Marne, and +while the slow luggage-train lumbered along I took the opportunity of +visiting the celebrated Camp of Châlons, the Aldershot of France. An +omnibus takes you from the railway station, and you soon enter a long +straggling street of very little houses, built badly, and looking as if +one and all could be pushed down by your hand. These are not the +military quarters, but the self-grown parasite sutlers' town, which +springs up near every camp. Here is "Place Solferino," and there "Rue +Malakhoff," where the sign of the inn is a Chinaman having his pigtail +lopped off by a Français. The camp is in the middle of a very large +plain, with plenty of dust and white earth, which "glared" on my eyes +intensely, this being the hottest day I have experienced during the +vacation. But there are trees for shade, and a good deal of grass on +these extensive downs where great armies can manoeuvre and march past +the Emperor as he sits enthroned under a bower on that hill-crest +overlooking all. + +The permanent buildings for the troops consist of about 500 separate +houses, substantial, airy, and well lighted, all built of brick, and +slated, and kept in good repair; each of these is about seventy feet +long, twenty broad, and of one story high. A million and a-half pounds +sterling have already been expended on this camp. Behind the quarters +are the soldiers' gardens, a feature added lately to the camps in +England. There were only a few thousand soldiers at the place, so we +soon saw all that was interesting, and then adjourned to a Restaurant, +where I observed about twenty officers go in a body to breakfast. This +they did in a separate room, but their loud, coarse, and outrageously +violent conversation really amazed me. The din was monstrous and +without intermission. We had never before fallen in with so very bad a +specimen of French manners, and I cannot help thinking there may have +been special reasons for these men bellowing for half an hour as they +ate their breakfast. + +The "mess system" has been tried in the French army several times, but +it seems to fail always, as the French Clubs do, on the whole. It is not +wise, however, for a traveller to generalize too rapidly upon the +character of any portion of a great people if he has not lived long +among them. A hasty glance may discern that a stranger has a long nose, +but you must have better acquaintance with him before you can truly +describe the character of your friend. In a little book just published +in France about the English Bar two facts are noted, that Barristers put +the name of their "Inn" on their visiting cards, and that the Temple +Volunteers are drilled admirably by a Serjeant-at-Law, who wields "an +umbrella with a varnished cover, which glances in the sun like a sword"! + +Another interesting town in this department of France is Rheims (spelt +Reims, and pronounced very nearly Rens). Having still an hour or two +free, I went there, and enjoyed the visit to the very splendid +cathedral. It is one of the finest in Europe, very old, very large, +very rich, and celebrated as the place of coronation for the French +sovereigns. Besides all this it is kept in good order, and is remarkably +clean. The outside is covered with stone figures, most of them rude in +art, but giving at a distance an appearance of prodigal richness of +material. A little periodical called _France Illustrated_ is published +at fourpence each number, with a map of the Department, several woodcuts +of notable places or events, and a brief history of the principal towns, +concluding with a _résumé_ of the statistics of the Department. A +publication of this kind would, I think, be very useful in England; and +for travellers especially, who could purchase at the County town the +particular number or part then required. + +In one of the adjoining Departments, according to this publication, it +appears that there are about a hundred suicides in the year among a +population of half a million. Surely this is an alarming proportion; and +what should we say if Manchester had to report 100 men and women in one +year who put themselves to death? + +But we are subsiding, you see, into the ordinary tales of a traveller, +because I am waiting now for the train and the Rob Roy, and certainly +this my only experience of widowerhood made me long again for the +well-known yellow oaken side of the boat and her pink-brown cedar +varnished top. + +Well, next morning here is the canoe at Epernay, arrived all safe at a +cost of 2_s._ 6_d._ All safe we thought at first, but we soon found it +had been sadly bruised, and would surely leak. I turned it upside down +on the railway platform in the hot sun, and bought two candles and +occupied three good hours in making repairs and greasing all the seams. +But after all this trouble, when we put the boat into the Marne, the +water oozed in all round. + +It is humiliating to sit in a leaky boat--it is like a lame horse or a +crooked gun; of all the needful qualities of a boat the first is to keep +out the water. So I stopped at the first village, and got a man to mix +white lead and other things, and we carefully worked this into all the +seams, leaving it to harden while I had my breakfast in the little +auberge close by the shore, where they are making the long rafts to go +down to Paris, and where hot farmers come to sip their two-penny bottle +of wine. + +The raft man was wonderfully proud of his performance with the canoe, +and he called out to each of his friends as they walked past, to give +them its long history in short words. When I paid him at last, he said +he hoped I would never forget that the canoe had been thoroughly mended +in the middle of France, at the village of ----, but I really do not +remember the name. + +However, there were not wanting tests of his workmanship, for the Rob +Roy had to be pulled over many dykes and barriers on the Marne. Some of +these were of a peculiar construction, and were evidently novel in +design. + +A "barrage" reached across the stream, and there were three steps or +falls on it, with a plateau between each. The water ran over these +steps, and was sometimes only a few inches in depth on the crest of each +fall, where it had to descend some eight or ten inches at most. + +This, of course, would have been easy enough for the canoe to pass, but +then a line of iron posts was ranged along each plateau, and chains were +tied from the top of one post to the bottom of another, diagonally, and +it will be understood that this was a very puzzling arrangement to steer +through in a fast current. + +In cases of this sort I usually got ashore to reconnoitre, and having +calculated the angle at which we must enter the passage obliquely (down +a fall, and across its stream), I managed to get successfully through +several of these strange barriers. We came at length to one which, on +examination, I had to acknowledge was "impassable," for the chains were +slack, and there was only an inch or two of "law" on either side of the +difficult course through them. + +[Illustration: "The Chain Barrier."] + +However, a man happened to see my movements and the canoe, and soon he +called some dozen of his fellow navvies from their work to look at the +navigator. + +The captain was therefore incited by these spectators to try the +passage, and I mentally resolved at any rate to be cool and placid, +however much discomfiture was to be endured. The boat was steered to the +very best of my power, but the bow of the canoe swerved an inch in the +swift oblique descent, and instantly it got locked in the chains, while +I quietly got out (whistling an air in slow time), and then, in the +water with all my clothes on, I steadily lifted the boat through the +iron network and got into her, dripping wet, but trying to behave as if +it were only the usual thing. The navvies cheered a long and loud bravo! +but I felt somewhat ashamed of having yielded to the desire for ignorant +applause, and when finally round the next corner I got out and changed +my wet things, a wiser and a sadder man, but dry. + +This part of the river is in the heart of the champagne country, and all +the softly swelling hills about are thickly covered by vineyards. The +vine for champagne is exceedingly small, and grows round one stick, and +the hillside looks just like a carding-brush, from the millions of these +little sharp-pointed rods upright in the ground and close together, +without any fence whatever between the innumerable lots. The grape for +champagne is always red, and never white, so they said, though "white +grapes are grown for eating." During the last two months few people have +consumed more grapes in this manner than the chief mate of the Rob Roy +canoe. + +On one of these hills we noticed the house of Madame Clicquot, whose +name has graced many a cork of champagne bottles and of bottles not +champagne. + +The vineyards of Ai, near Epernay, are the most celebrated for their +wine. After the bottles are filled, they are placed neck downwards, and +the sediment collects near the cork. Each bottle is then uncorked in +this position, and the confined gas forces out a little of the wine with +the sediment, while a skilful man dexterously replaces the cork when +this sediment has been expelled. One would think that only a very +skilful man can perform such a feat. When the bottles are stored in +"caves," or vast cellars, the least change of temperature causes them to +burst by hundreds. Sometimes one-fourth of the bottles explode in this +manner, and it is said that the renowned Madame Clicquot lost 400,000 in +the hot autumn of 1843, before sufficient ice could be fetched from +Paris to cool her spacious cellars. Every year about fifty million +bottles of genuine champagne are made in France, and no one can say how +many more millions of bottles of "French champagne" are imbibed every +year by a confiding world. + +The Marne is a large and deep river, and its waters are kept up by +barriers every few miles. It is rather troublesome to pass these by +taking the boat out and letting it down on the other side, and in +crossing one of them I gave a serious blow to the stern of the canoe +against an iron bar. This blow started four planks from the sternpost, +and revealed to me also that the whole frame had suffered from the +journey at night on an open truck. However, as my own ship's carpenter +was on board, and had nails and screws, we soon managed to make all +tight again, and by moonlight came to Dormans, where I got two men to +carry the boat as usual to an hotel, and had the invariable run of +visitors from that time until everybody went to bed. + +It is curious to remark the different names by which the canoe has been +called, and among these the following:--"_Batteau_," "_schiff_," +"_bôt_," "_barca_," "_canôt_," "_caique_" (the soldiers who have been in +the Crimea call it thus), "_chaloupe_" "_navire_," "_schipp_" (Low +German), "_yacht_" ("jacht"--Danish, "jaht," from "jagen," to ride +quickly--properly a boat drawn by horses). Several people have spoken of +it as "_batteau à vapeur_," for in the centre of France they have never +seen a steamboat, but the usual name with the common people is "_petit +batteau_" and among the educated people "_nacelle_" or "_perissoir_;" +this last as we call a dangerous boat a "coffin" or "sudden death." + +An early start next morning found me slipping along with a tolerable +current and under sail before a fine fresh breeze, but with the same +unalterable blue sky. I had several interesting conversations with +farmers and others riding to market along the road which here skirts the +river. What most surprises the Frenchman is that a traveller can +possibly be happy alone! Not one hour have I had of _ennui_, and, +however selfish it may seem, it is true that for this sort of journey I +prefer to travel entirely _seul_. + +Pleasant trees and pretty gardens are here on every side in plenty, but +where are the houses of the gentlemen of France, and where are the +French gentlemen themselves? This is a difference between France and +England which cannot fail to "knock" the observant traveller (as Artemus +Ward would say)--the notable absence of country seats during hours and +hours of passage along the best routes; whereas in England the prospect +from almost every hill of woodland would have a great house at the end +of its vista, and the environs of every town would stretch into outworks +of villas smiling in the sun. The French have ways and fashions which +are not ours, but their nation is large enough to entitle them to a +standard of their own, just as the Americans, with so great a people +agreed on the matter, may surely claim liberty to speak with a twang, +and to write of a "plow." + +I am convinced that it is a mistake to say we Britons are a silent +people compared with the French or Americans. At some hundred sittings +of the table d'hôte in both these countries I have found more of dull, +dead silence than in England at our inns. An Englishman accustomed only +to the pleasant chat of a domestic dinner feels ill at ease when dining +with strangers, and so he notices their silence all the more; but the +French table d'hôte (not in the big barrack hotels, for English +tourists, we have before remarked upon) has as little general +conversation, and an American one has far less than in England. + +Here in France come six or seven middle-class men to dine. They put the +napkin kept for each from yesterday, and recognized by the knots they +tied on it, up to their chins like the pinafore of a baby, and wipe +plate, fork, and spoons with the other end, and eat bits and scraps of +many dishes, and scrape their plates almost clean, and then depart, and +not one word has been uttered. + +Then, again, there is the vaunted French climate. Bright sun, no doubt, +but forget not that it is so very bright as to compel all rooms to be +darkened from ten to four each day. At noon the town is like a cemetery; +no one thinks of walking, riding, or looking out of his window in the +heat. From seven to nine in the morning, and from an hour before sunset +to any time you please at night, the open air is delicious. But I +venture to say that in a week of common summer weather we see more of +the sun in England than in France, for we seldom have so much of it at +once as to compel us to close our eyes against its fierce rays. In fact, +the sensation of life in the South, after eleven o'clock in the morning, +is that of _waiting for the cool hours_, and so day after day is a +continual reaching forward to something about to come; whereas, an +English day of sunshine is an enjoyable present from beginning to end. +Once more, let it be remembered that twilight lasts only for half an +hour in the sunny South; that delicious season of musing and long +shadows is a characteristic of the northern latitudes which very few +Southerners have ever experienced at all. + +The run down the Marne for about 200 miles was a pleasant part of the +voyage, but seldom so exciting in adventure as the paddling on unknown +waters. Long days of work could therefore be now well endured, for +constant exercise had trained the body, and a sort of instinct was +enough, when thus educated by experience, to direct the mind. Therefore +the Rob Roy's paddle was in my hands for ten hours at a time without +weariness, and sometimes even for twelve hours at a stretch. + +After a comfortable night at Chateau Thierry in the Elephant Hotel, +which is close to the water, I took my canoe down from the hayloft to +which it had been hoisted, and once more launched her on the river. The +current gradually increased, and the vineyards gave place to forest +trees. See, there are the rafts, some of casks, lashed together with +osiers, some of planks, others of hewn logs, and others of great rough +trees. There is a straw hut on them for the captain's cabin, and the +crew will have a stiff fortnight's work to drag, push, and steer this +congeries of wood on its way to the Seine. The labour spent merely in +adjusting and securing the parts is enormous, but labour of that kind +costs little here. + +Further on there is a large flock of sheep conducted to the river to +drink, in the orthodox pastoral manner of picture-books. But (let us +confess it) they were also driven by the sagacious shepherd's dogs, who +seem to know perfectly that the woolly multitude has come precisely to +drink, and, therefore, the dogs cleverly press forward each particular +sheep, until it has got a place by the cool brink of the water. + +In the next quiet bay a village maid drives her cow to the river, and +chats across the water with another, also leading in a cow to wade knee +deep, and to dip its broad nose, and lift it gently again from the cool +stream. On the road alongside is a funny little waggon, and a whole +family are within. This concern is actually drawn along by a goat. Its +little kid skips about, for the time of toil has not yet come to the +youngling, and it may gambol now. + +But here is the bridge of Nogent, so I leave my boat in charge of an old +man, and give positive pleasure to the cook at the auberge by ordering a +breakfast. Saints' portraits adorn the walls, and a "sampler" worked by +some little girl, with only twenty-five letters in the alphabet, for the +"w" is as yet ignored in classic grammars, though it has now to be +constantly used in the common books and newspapers. Why, they even adopt +our sporting terms, and you see in a paper that such a race was only "un +Walkover," and that another was likely to be "un dead heat." + +Suddenly in my quiet paddling here the sky was shaded, and on looking up +amazed I found a cloud; at last, after six weeks of brilliant blue and +scorching glare, one fold of the fleecy curtain has been drawn over the +sun. + +The immediate effect of this cooler sky was very invigorating, though, +after weeks of hot glare (reflected upwards again into the face from +the water), it seemed the most natural thing to be always in a blaze of +light, for much of the inconvenience of it was avoided by a plan which +will be found explained in the Appendix, with some other hints to +"Boating Men." + +The day went pleasantly now, and with only the events of ordinary times, +which need not be recounted. The stream was steady, the banks were +peopled, and many a blue-bloused countryman stopped to look at the canoe +as she glided past, with the captain's socks and canvas shoes on the +deck behind him, for this was his drying-place for wet clothes. + +Now and then a pleasure-boat was seen, and there were several canoes at +some of the towns, but all of them flat-bottomed and open, and +desperately unsafe--well named "perissoirs." Some of these were made of +metal. The use of this is well-known to be a great mistake for any boat +under ten tons; in all such cases it is much heavier than wood of the +same strength, considering the strains which a boat must expect to +undergo. + +"La Ferté sous Jouarre" is the long name of the next stopping-place. +There are several towns called by the name La Ferté (La Fortifié), which +in some measure corresponds with the termination "caster" or "cester" of +English names. Millstones are the great specialty of this La Ferté. A +good millstone costs 50_l._, and there is a large exportation of them. +The material has the very convenient property of not requiring to be +chipped into holes, as these exist in this stone naturally. + +At La Ferté I put the boat into a hayloft; how often it has occupied +this elevated lodgings amongst its various adventures; and at dinner +with me there is an intelligent and hungry bourgeois from Paris, with +his vulgar and hearty wife, and opposite to them the gossip of the town, +who kept rattling on the stupid, endless fiddle-faddle of everybody's +doings, sayings, failings, and earnings. Some amusement, however, +resulted from the collision of two gossips at our table of four guests, +for while the one always harped upon family tales of La Ferté, its local +statistics, and the minute sayings of its people, the other kept +struggling to turn our thoughts to shoes and slippers, for he was a +commercial traveller with a cartful of boots to sell. But, after all, +how much of our conversation in better life is only of the same kind, +though about larger, or at any rate different things; what might sound +trifles to our British Cabinet would be the loftiest politics of +Honolulu. + +When we started at eight o'clock next day I felt an unaccountable +languor; my arms were tired, and my energy seemed, for the first time, +deficient. This was the result of a week's hard exercise, and of a +sudden change of wind to the south. Give me our English climate for real +hard work to prosper in. + +One generally associates the north wind with cool and bracing air, and +certainly in the Mediterranean it is the change of wind to the south, +the hated _sirocce_, that enervates the traveller at once. But this +north wind on the Marne came over a vast plain of arid land heated by +two months of scorching sun, whereas the breezes of last week, though +from the east, had been tempered in passing over the mountains of the +Vosges. + +Forty-two miles lay before me to be accomplished before arriving +to-night at my resting-place for Sunday, and it was not a pleasant +prospect to contemplate with stiff muscles in the shoulders. However, +after twelve miles I found that about twenty miles in turnings of the +river could be cut off by putting the boat on a cart, and thus a league +of walking and 3_s._ 4_d._ of payment solved the difficulty. The old man +with his cart was interesting to talk to, and we spoke about those deep +subjects which are of common interest to all. + +At a turn in the road we came upon a cart overturned and with a little +crowd round it, while the earth was covered with a great pool of what +seemed to be blood, but was only wine. The cart had struck a tree, and +the wine-cask on it instantly burst, which so frightened the horse that +he overset the cart. + +The Rob Roy was soon in the water again, and the scenery had now become +much more enjoyable. + +I found an old soldier at a ferry who fetched me a bottle of wine, and +then he and his wife sat in their leaky, flat, green-painted boat, and +became very great friends with the Englishman. He had been at the taking +of Constantine in Algeria, a place which really does look quite +impossible to be taken by storm. But the appearance of a fortress is +deceptive except to the learned in such matters. Who would think that +Comorn, in Hungary, is stronger than Constantine? When you get near +Comorn there is nothing to see, and it is precisely because of this that +it was able to resist so long. + +The breeze soon freshened till I hoisted my sails and was fairly wafted +on to Meaux, so that, after all, the day, begun with forebodings, became +as easy and as pleasant as the rest. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Meaux on the Marne--Hammering--Popish forms--Wise dogs--Blocked + in a tunnel--A dry voyage--Arbour and garret--Odd + fellows--Dream on the Seine--Almost over--No + admittance--Charing-cross. + + +There are three hemispheres of scenery visible to the traveller who +voyages thus in a boat on the rivers. First, the great arch of sky, and +land, and trees, and flowers down to the water's brink; then the whole +of this reflected beautifully in the surface of the river; and then the +wondrous depths in the water itself, with its animal life, its rocks and +glades below, and its flowers and mosses. Now rises the moon so clear, +and with the sky around it so black that no "man in the moon" can be +seen. + +At the hotel we find a whole party of guests for the marriage-dinner of +a newly-wedded pair. The younger portion of the company adjourn to the +garden and let off squibs and crackers, so it seems to be a good time to +exhibit some of my signal lights from my bedroom-window, and there is +much cheering as the Englishman illumines the whole neighbourhood. Next +day the same people all assembled for the marriage breakfast, and +sherry, madeira, and champagne flowed from the well-squeezed purse of +the bride's happy father. + +I have noticed that the last sound to give way to the stillness of the +night in a village is that of the blacksmith's hammer, which is much +more heard abroad than at home. Perhaps this is because much of their +execrable French ironwork is made in each town; whereas in England it is +manufactured by machinery in great quantities and at special places. At +any rate, after travelling on the Continent long enough to become calm +and observant, seeing, hearing, and, we may add, scenting all around, +the picture in the mind is full of blue dresses, white stones, jingling +of bells, and the "cling, cling" of the never idle blacksmith. + +This town of Meaux has a bridge with houses on it, and great mill-wheels +filling up the arches as they used to do in old London-bridge. Pleasant +gardens front the river, and cafés glitter there at night. These are not +luxuries but positive necessaries of life for the Frenchman, and it is +their absence abroad which--we believe--is one chief cause of his being +so bad a colonist, for the Frenchman has only the expression "with me" +for "home," and no word for "wife" but "woman." + +The cathedral of Meaux is grand and old, and see how they masquerade +the service in it! Look at the gaunt "Suisse," with his cocked-hat kept +on in church, with his sword and spear. The twenty priests and twelve +red-surpliced boys intone to about as many hearers. A monk escorted +through the church makes believe to sprinkle holy water on all sides +from that dirty plasterer's brush, and then two boys carry on their +shoulders a huge round loaf, the "pain benit," which, after fifty +bowings, is blessed, and escorted back to be cut up, and is then given +in morsels to the congregation. These endless ceremonies are the meshes +of the net of Popery, and they are well woven to catch many Frenchmen, +who must have action, show, the visible tangible outside, whatever may +be meant by it. + +This service sets one a-thinking. Some form there must be in worship. +One may suppose, indeed, that perfect spirit can adore God without +attitude, or even any sequence or change. Yet in the Bible we hear of +Seraphs veiling their bodies with their wings, and of elders prostrate +at certain times, and saints that have a litany even in heaven. Mortals +must have some form of adoration, but there is the question, How much? +and on this great point how many wise and foolish men have written books +without end, or scarcely any effect! + +The riverside was a good place for a quiet Sunday walk. Here a flock of +300 sheep had come to drink, and nibble at the flowers hanging over the +water, and the simple-hearted shepherd stood looking on while his dogs +rushed backward and forward, yearning for some sheep to do wrong, that +their dog service might be required to prevent or to punish naughty +conduct. This "Berger" inquires whether England is near Africa, and how +large our legs of mutton are, and if we have sheep-dogs, and are there +any rivers in our island on the sea. Meanwhile at the hotel the marriage +party kept on "breakfasting," even until four o'clock, and non-melodious +songs were sung. The French, as a people, do not excel in vocal music, +either in tone or in harmony, but then they are precise in time. + +Afloat again next morning, and quite refreshed, we prepared for a long +day's work. The stream was now clear, and the waving tresses of dark +green weeds gracefully curved under water, while islands amid deep shady +bays varied the landscape above. + +I saw a canal lock open, and paddled in merely for variety, passing soon +into a tunnel, in the middle of which there was a huge boat fixed, and +nobody with it. The boat exactly filled the tunnel, and the men had gone +to their dinner, so I had first to drag their huge boat out, and then +the canoe proudly glided into daylight, having a whole tunnel to itself. + +At Lagny, where we were to breakfast, I left my boat with a nice old +gentleman, who was fishing in a nightcap and spectacles, and he assured +me he would stop there two hours. But when I scrambled back to it +through the mill (the miller's men amazed among their wholesome dusty +sacks), the disconsolate Rob Roy was found to be all alone, the first +time she had been left in a town an "unprotected female." + +To escape a long serpent wind of the river, we entered another canal and +found it about a foot deep, with clear water flowing pleasantly. This +seemed to be very fortunate, and it was enjoyed most thoroughly for a +few miles, little knowing what was to come. Presently weeds began, then +clumps of great rushes, then large bushes and trees, all growing with +thick grass in the water, and at length this got so dense that the +prospect before me was precisely like a very large hayfield, with grass +four feet high, all ready to be mowed, but which had to be mercilessly +rowed through. + +This on a hot day without wind, and in a long vista, unbroken by a man +or a house, or anything lively, was rather daunting, but we had gone too +far to recede with honour, and so by dint of pushing and working I +actually got the boat through some miles of this novel obstruction +(known only this summer), and brought her safe and sound again to the +river. At one place there was a bridge over this wet marsh, and two men +happened to be going over it as the canoe came near. They soon called to +some neighbours, and the row of spectators exhibited the faculty so +notable in French people and so rarely found with us, that of being able +to keep from laughing right out at a foreigner in an awkward case. The +absurd sight of a man paddling a boat amid miles of thick rushes was +indeed a severe test of courteous gravity. However, I must say that the +labour required to penetrate this marsh was far less than one would +suppose from the appearance of the place. The sharp point of the boat +entered, and its smooth sides followed through hedges, as it were, of +aquatic plants, and, on the whole (and after all was done!), I preferred +the trouble and muscular effort required then to that of the monotonous +calm of usual canal sailing. + +[Illustration: "Canal Miseries."] + +Fairly in the broad river again the Rob Roy came to Neuilly, and it was +plain that my Sunday rest had enabled over thirty miles to be +accomplished without any fatigue at the end. With some hesitation we +selected an inn on the water-side. The canoe was taken up to it and put +on a table in a summer-house, while my own bed was in a garret where one +could not stand upright--the only occasion where I have been badly +housed; and pray let no one be misled by the name of this abode--"The +Jolly Rowers." + +Next day the river flowed fast again, and numerous islands made the +channels difficult to find. The worst of these difficulties is that you +cannot prepare for them. No map gives any just idea of your route--the +people on the river itself are profoundly ignorant of its navigation. +For instance, in starting, my landlord told me that in two hours we +should reach Paris. After ten miles an intelligent man said, "Distance +from Paris? it is six hours from here;" while a third informed me a +little further on, "It is just three leagues and a half from this spot." + +The banks were now dotted with villas, and numerous pleasure-boats were +moored at neat little stairs. The vast number of these boats quite +astonished me, and the more so as very few of them were ever to be seen +in actual use. + +The French are certainly ingenious in their boat-making, but more of +ingenuity than of practical exercise is seen on the water. On several +rivers we remarked the "walking machine," in which a man can walk on the +water by fixing two small boats on his feet. A curious mode of rowing +with your face to the bows has lately been invented by a Frenchman, and +it is described in the Appendix. + +We stopped to breakfast at a new canal cutting, and as there were many +_gamins_ about, I fastened a stone to my painter and took the boat out +into the middle of the river, and so left her moored within sight of the +arbour, where I sat, and also within sight of the ardent-eyed boys who +gazed for hours with wistful looks on the tiny craft and its fluttering +flag. Their desire to handle as well as to see is only natural for +these little fellows, and, therefore, if the lads behave well, I always +make a point of showing them the whole affair quite near, after they +have had to abstain from it so long as a forbidden pleasure. + +Strange that this quick curiosity of French boys does not ripen more of +them into travellers, but it soon gets expended in trifling details of a +narrow circle, while the sober, sedate, nay, the _triste_, Anglian is +found scurrying over the world with a carpet-bag, and pushing his way in +foreign crowds without one word of their language, and all the while as +merry as a lark. Among the odd modes of locomotion adopted by +Englishmen, we have already mentioned that of the gentleman travelling +in Germany with a four-in-hand and two spare horses. We met another +Briton who had made a tour in a road locomotive which he bought for +700_l._, and sold again at the same price. One more John Bull, who +regarded the canoe as a "queer conveyance," went himself abroad on a +velocipede. None of these, however, could cross seas, lakes, and rivers +like the canoe, which might be taken wherever a man could walk or a +plank could swim. + +It seemed contrary to nature that, after thus nearing pretty Paris, +one's back was now to be turned upon it for hours in order to have a +wide, vague, purposeless voyage into country parts. But the river +willed it so; for here a great curve began and led off to the left, +while the traffic of the Marne went straight through a canal to the +right,--through a canal, and therefore I would not follow it there. + +The river got less and less in volume; its water was used for the canal, +and it could scarcely trickle, with its maimed strength, through a +spacious sweep of real country life. Here we often got grounded, got +entangled in long mossy weeds, got fastened in overhanging trees, and, +in fact, suffered all the evils which the smallest brook had ever +entailed, though this was a mighty river. + +The bend was more and more inexplicable, as it turned more round and +round, till my face was full in the sunlight at noon, and I saw that the +course was now due south. + +Rustics were there to look at me, and wondering herdsmen too, as if the +boat was in mid Germany, instead of being close to Paris. Evidently +boating men in that quarter never came here by the river, and the Rob +Roy was a _rara avis_ floating on a stream unused. + +But the circle was rounded at last, as all circles are, however large +they be; and we got back to the common route, to civilization, fishing +men and fishing women, and on the broad Marne once more. So here I +stopped a bit for a ponder. + +And now we unmoor for the last time, and enter the Rob Roy for its final +trip--the last few miles of the Marne, and of more than a thousand miles +rowed and sailed since we started from England. I will not disguise my +feeling of sadness then, and I wished that Paris was still another day +distant. + +For this journey in a canoe has been interesting, agreeable, and useful, +though its incidents may not be realized by reading what has now been +described. The sensation of novelty, freedom, health, and variety all +day and every day was what cannot be recited. The close acquaintance +with the people of strange lands, and the constant observation of nature +around, and the unremitting attention necessary for progress, all +combine to make a voyage of this sort improving to the mind thus kept +alert, while the body thoroughly enjoys life when regular hard exercise +in the open air dissipates the lethargy of these warmer climes. + +These were my thoughts as I came to the Seine and found a cool bank to +lie upon under the trees, with my boat gently rocking in the ripples of +the stream below, and the nearer sound of a great city telling that +Paris was at hand. "Here," said I, "and now is my last hour of life +savage and free. Sunny days; alone, but not solitary; worked, but not +weary"--as in a dream the things, places, and men I had seen floated +before my eyes half closed. The panorama was wide, and fair to the +mind's eye; but it had a tale always the same as it went quickly +past--that vacation was over, and work must begin. + +Up, then, for this is not a life of mere enjoyment. Again into the +harness of "polite society," the hat, the collar, the braces, the +gloves, the waistcoat, the latch-key--perhaps, the razor--certainly the +umbrella. How every joint and limb will rebel against these manacles, +but they must be endured! + +The gradual approach to Paris by gliding down the Seine was altogether a +new sensation. By diligence, railway, or steamer, you have nothing like +it--not certainly by walking into Paris along a dusty road. + +For now we are smoothly carried on a wide and winding river, with +nothing to do but to look and to listen while the splendid panorama +majestically unfolds. Villas thicken, gardens get smaller as houses are +closer, trees get fewer as walls increase. Barges line the banks, +commerce and its movement, luxury and its adornments, spires and cupolas +grow out of the dim horizon, and then bridges seem to float towards me, +and the hum of life gets deeper and busier, while the pretty little +prattling of the river stream yields to the roar of traffic, and to that +indescribable thrill which throbs in the air around this the capital of +the Continent, the centre of the politics, the focus of the pleasure and +the splendour of the world. + +In passing the island at Notre Dame I fortunately took the proper side, +but even then we found a very awkward rush of water under the bridges. +This was caused by the extreme lowness of the river, which on this very +day was three feet lower than in the memory of man. The fall over each +barrier, though wide enough, was so shallow that I saw at the last +bridge the crowd above me evidently calculated upon my being upset; and +they were nearly right too. The absence of other boats showed me (now +experienced in such omens) that some great difficulty was at hand, but I +also remarked that by far the greater number of observers had collected +over one particular arch, where at first there seemed to be the very +worst chance for getting through. By logical deduction I argued, "that +must be the best arch, after all, for they evidently expect I will try +it," and, with a horrid presentiment that my first upset was to be at my +last bridge, I boldly dashed forward--whirl, whirl the waves, and +grate--grate--my iron keel; but the Rob Roy rises to the occasion, and a +rewarding Bravo! from the Frenchmen above is answered by a British "All +right" from the boat below. + +No town was so hard to find a place for the canoe in as the bright, gay +Paris. I went to the floating baths; they would not have me. We paddled +to the funny old ship; they shook their heads. We tried a coal wharf; +but they were only civil there. Even the worthy washerwomen, my quondam +friends, were altogether callous now about a harbour for the canoe. + +In desperation we paddled to a bath that was being repaired, but when my +boat rounded the corner it was met by a volley of abuse from the +proprietor for disturbing his fishing; he was just in the act of +expecting the final bite of a _goujon_. + +Relenting as we apologized and told the Rob Roy's tale, he housed her +there for the night; and I shouldered my luggage and wended my way to an +hotel. + +Here is Meurice's, with the homeward tide of Britons from every Alp and +cave of Europe flowing through its salons. Here are the gay streets, too +white to be looked at in the sun, and the _poupeé_ theatres under the +trees, and the dandies driving so stiff in hired carriages, and the +dapper, little soldiers, and the gilded cafés. + +Yes, it is Paris--and more brilliant than ever! + +I faintly tried to hope, but--pray pardon me--I utterly failed to +believe that any person there had enjoyed his summer months with such +excessive delight as the captain, the purser, the ship's cook, and cabin +boy of the Rob Roy canoe. + +Eight francs take the boat by rail to Calais. Two shillings take her +thence to Dover. The railway takes her free to Charing Cross, and there +two porters put her in the Thames again. + +A flowing tide, on a sunny evening, bears her fast and cheerily straight +to Searle's, there to debark the Rob Roy's cargo safe and sound and +thankful, and to plant once more upon the shore of old England + + The flag that braved a thousand miles, + The rapid and the snag. + +[Illustration] + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +GOSSIP ASHORE ABOUT THINGS AFLOAT. + +Those who intend to make a river voyage on the Continent--and several +canoes are preparing for this purpose--will probably feel interested in +some of the following information, while other readers of these pages +may be indulgent enough to excuse the relation of a few particulars and +technical details. + +It is proposed, then, to give, first, a description of the canoe +considered to be most suitable for a voyage of this sort after +experience has aided in modifying the dimensions of the boat already +used; second, an inventory of the cargo or luggage of the Rob Roy, with +remarks on the subject, for the guidance of future passengers. + +Next there will be found some notes upon rocks and currents in broken +water; and lastly, some further remarks on the "Kent," and a few +miscellaneous observations upon various points. + +Although the Rob Roy and its luggage were not prepared until after much +cogitation, it is well that intending canoists should have the benefit +of what experience has since proved as to the faults and virtues of the +arrangements devised for a first trip, after these have been thoroughly +tasted in so pleasant a tour. + +The best dimensions for the canoe appear to be--length, 14 feet +[15][XXXVI.]; beam, 26 inches [28], six inches abaft the midship; depth +outside, from keel to deck, 9 inches; camber, 1 inch [2]; keel, 1 inch, +with a strip of iron, half an inch broad, carefully secured all the way +below, and a copper strip up the stem and stern posts, and round the top +of each of them. + + [XXXVI.] The figures in [ ] are the dimensions of the old Rob Roy. + +The new canoe now building will have the beam at the water's edge, and +the upper plank will "topple in," so that the cedar deck will be only 20 +inches wide. + +The "well" or opening in the deck should be 4 feet long [4 feet 6 +inches] and 20 inches wide, with a strong combing all round, sloping +forward, but not more than 1 inch [2] high at the bow end. This opening +should be semicircular at the ends, both for appearance sake and +strength and convenience, so as to avoid corners. The macintosh sheet to +cover this must be strong, to resist constant wear, light coloured, for +the sun's heat, and so attached as to be readily loosened and made fast +again, say 20 times a day, and by cords which will instantly break if +you have to jump out. In the new canoe this macintosh (the most +difficult part of the equipment to arrange) is 18 inches long, and a +light wooden hatch covers the fore part, an arrangement found to be most +successful. + +A water-tight compartment in the hull is a mistake. Its partition +prevents access to breakages within, and arrests the circulation of air, +and it cannot be kept long perfectly staunch. There should be extra +timbers near the seat. + +The canoe must be so constructed as to endure without injury, (1) to be +lifted by any part whatever; (2) to be rested on any part; (3) to be sat +upon while aground, on any part of the deck, the combing, and the +interior. + +Wheels for transport have been often suggested, but they would be +useless. On plain ground or grass you can readily do without them. On +rocks and rough ground, or over ditches and through hedges, wheels could +not be employed, and at all times they would be in the way. Bilge pieces +are not required. Strength must be had without them, and their +projections seriously complicate the difficulties of pushing the boat +over a pointed rock, both when afloat and when ashore; besides, as they +are not parallel to the keel they very much retard the boat's speed. + +The paddle should be 7 feet long (not more), weight, 2 lbs. 9 oz., +strong, with blades 6 inches broad, ends rounded, thick, and banded with +copper. There should be conical cups of vulcanised India rubber to catch +the dribbling water, and, if possible, some plan (not yet devised) for +preventing or arresting the drops from the paddle ends, which fall on +the deck when you paddle slowly, and when there is not enough +centrifugal force to throw this water away from the boat. + +The painter ought to be of the best flexible rope, not tarred, well able +to bear 200 lb. weight; more than 20 feet of rope is a constant +encumbrance. The ends should be silk-whipped and secured through a hole +in the stem post and another in the stern post (so that either or both +ends can be readily cast off); the slack may be coiled on deck behind +you. + +There should be a back support of two wooden slips, each 15 inches by 3 +inches, placed like the side strokes of the letter H, and an inch apart, +but laced together with cord, or joined by a strip of cloth. Rest them +against the edge of the combing, and so as to be free to yield to the +motion of the back at each stroke, without hurting the spine. If made +fast so as always to project, they are much in the way of the painter in +critical times. They may be hinged below so as to fold down as you get +out, but in this case they are in the way when you are getting in and +wish to sit down in an instant ready for work. + +The mast should be 5 feet long, strong enough to stand gales without +stays, stepped just forward of the stretcher, in a tube an inch above +deck, and so as to be struck without difficulty in a squall, or when +nearing trees, or a bridge, barrier, ferry-rope, bank, or waterfall, or +when going aground. + +The sail, if a lug, should have a fore leach of 3 feet 10 inches, a head +of 3 feet 6 inches, and a foot of 4 feet 6 inches; yard and boom of +bamboo. + +The boat can well stand more sail than this at sea, or in lakes and +broad channels, but the foregoing size for a lug is quite large enough +to manage in stiff breezes and in narrow rocky tortuous rivers. + +A spritsail would be better in some respects, but no plan has, as yet, +been suggested to me for instantly striking the sprit without +endangering the deck, so I mean to use a lug still. + +The material of the sail should be strong cotton, in one piece, without +any eyelet or hole whatever, but with a broad hem, enclosing +well-stretched cord all round. A jib is of little use as a sail. It is +apt to get aback in sudden turns. Besides, you must land either to set +it or to take in its outhaul, so as to be quite snug. But the jib does +well to tie on the shoulders when they are turned to a fierce sun. The +boom should be attached by a brass shackle, so that when "topped" or +folded its end closes on the top of the mast. The sails (with the boom +and yard) should be rolled up round the mast compactly, to be stowed +away forward, so that the end of the mast resting on the stretcher will +keep the roll of sails out of the wet. The flag and its staff when not +fast at the mast-head (by two metal loops) should fit into the +mast-step, and the flag-staff, 24 inches long, should be light, so as +not to sink if it falls overboard, as one of mine did. + +The floor-boards should be strong, and easily detachable, so that one of +them can be at once used as a paddle if that falls overboard. They +should come six inches short of the stern end of a light seat, which +can thus rest on the timbers, so as to be as low as possible, and its +top should be of strong cane open-work. + +The stretcher should have only one length, and let this be carefully +determined after trial before starting. The two sides of its foot-board +should be high and broad, while the middle may be cut down to let the +hand get to the mast. The stretcher should, of course, be moveable, in +order that you may lie down with the legs at full length for repose. + +One brass cleat for belaying the halyard should be on deck, about the +middle, and on the right-hand side. A stud on the other side, and this +cleat will do to make the sheet fast to by one turn on either tack. + + +LIST OF STORES ON BOARD THE ROB ROY. + +1. _Useful Stores._--Paddle, painter (31 feet at first, but cut down to +20 feet), sponge, waterproof cover, 5 feet by 2 feet 3 inches, silk blue +union jack, 10 inches by 8 inches, on a staff 2 feet long. Mast, boom, +and yard. Lug sail, jib, and spare jib (used as a sun shawl). Stretcher, +two back boards, floor boards, basket to sit on (12 inches by 6 inches, +by 1 inch deep), and holding a macintosh coat. For repairs--iron and +brass screws, sheet copper and copper nails, putty and whitelead, a +gimlet, cord, string, and thread, one spare button, needle, pins, canvas +wading shoes (wooden clogs would be better); all the above should be +left with the boat. Black bag for 3 months' luggage, size, 12 inches by +12 inches, by 5 inches deep (just right), closed by three buttons, and +with shoulder-strap. Flannel Norfolk jacket (flaps not too long, else +they dip in the water, or the pockets are inverted in getting out and +in); wide flannel trousers, gathered by a broad back buckle belt, second +trousers for shore should have braces, but in the boat the back buttons +are in the way. Flannel shirt on, and another for shore. A straw hat is +the very best for use--while writing this there are 16 various head +covers before me used in different tours, but the straw hat is best of +all for boating. Thin alpaca black Sunday coat, thick waistcoat, black +leather light-soled spring-sided shoes (should be strong for rocks and +village pavements), cloth cap (only used as a bag), 2 collars, 3 pocket +handkerchiefs, ribbon tie, 2 pair of cotton socks (easily got off for +sudden wading, and drying quickly when put on deck in the sun). Brush, +comb, and tooth-brush. Testament, passport (will be scarcely needed this +season), leather purse, large (and _full_), circular notes, small change +in silver and copper for frequent use, blue spectacles in strong case, +book for journal and sketches, black, blue, and red chalk, and steel +pen. Maps, cutting off a six inch square at a time for pocket reference. +Pipe, tobacco-case, and light-box (metal, to resist moisture from +without and within), Guide books and pleasant evening reading book. You +should cut off covers and all useless pages of books, and every page as +read; no needless weight should be carried hundreds of miles; even a +fly settling on the boat must be refused a free passage. Illustrated +papers, tracts, and anecdotes in French and German for Sunday reading +and daily distribution (far too few had been taken, they were always +well received). Medicine (rhubarb and court plaister), small knife, and +pencil. Messrs. Silver's, in Bishopsgate, is the place for stores. + +2. _Useless Articles._--Boathook, undervest, waterproof helmet, +ventilated cap, foreign Conversation books, glass seltzer bottle and +patent cork (for a drinking flask), tweezers for thorns. + +3. _Lost or Stolen Articles._--Bag for back cushion, waterproof bag for +sitting cushion, long knife, necktie, woven waistcoat, box of quinine, +steel-hafted knife. These, except the last of them, were not missed. I +bought another thick waistcoat from a Jew. + + +ROCKS AND CURRENTS. + +A few remarks may now be made upon the principal cases in which rocks +and currents have to be dealt with by the canoist. + +Even if a set of rules could be laid down for the management of a boat +in the difficult parts of a river, it would not be made easier until +practice has given the boatman that quick judgment as to their +application which has to be patiently acquired in this and other +athletic exercises, such as riding or skating, and even in walking. + +The canoist, who passes many hours every day for months together in the +earnest consideration of the river problems always set before him for +solution, will probably feel some interest in this attempt to classify +those that occur most frequently. + +Steering a boat in a current among rocks is not unlike walking on a +crowded pavement, where the other passengers are going in various +directions, and at various speeds; and this operation of threading your +way in the streets requires a great deal of practice, and not a few +lessons enforced by collisions, to make a pedestrian thoroughly _au +fait_ as a good man in a crowd. After years of walking through crowds, +there is produced by this education of the mind and training of the body +a certain power--not possessed by a novice--which insensibly directs a +man in his course and his speed, but still his judgment has had +insensibly to take cognizance of many varying _data_ in the movements of +other people which must have their effect upon each step he takes. + +After this capacity becomes, as it were, instinctive, or, at any rate, +acts almost involuntarily, a man can walk briskly along Fleet-street at +4 p.m., and, without any distinct thought about other people, or about +his own progress, he can safely get to his journey's end. Indeed, if he +does begin to think of rules or how to apply them systematically, he is +then almost sure to knock up against somebody else. Nay, if two men meet +as they walk through a crowd, and each of them "catches the eye" of the +other, they will probably cease to move instinctively, and, with +uncertain data to reason from, a collision is often the result. + +As the descent of a current among rocks resembles a walk along the +pavement through a crowd, so the passage _across_ a rapid is even more +strictly in resemblance with the course of a man who has to cross a +street where vehicles are passing at uncertain intervals and at various +speeds, though all in the same direction. For it is plain that the thing +to be done is nearly the same, whether the obstacles (as breakers) are +fixed and the current carries you towards them, or the obstacles (as +cabs and carts) are moving, while you have to walk through them on +_terra firma_. + +To cross Park-lane in the afternoon requires the very same sort of +calculation as the passage across the stream in a rapid on the Rhine. + +The importance of this subject of "boating instinct" will be considered +sufficient to justify these remarks when the canoist has by much +practice at last attained to that desirable proficiency which enables +him to steer without thinking about it, and therefore to enjoy the +conversation of other people on the bank or the scenery, while he is +rapidly speeding through rocks, eddies, and currents. + +We may divide the rocks thus encountered in fast water into two +classes--(1) Those that are _sunk_, so that the boat can float over +them, and which do not deflect the direction of the surface current. (2) +Those that are _breakers_, and so deflect the current, and do not allow +the boat to float over them. + +The currents may be divided into--(1) Those that are equable in force, +and in the same direction through the course to be steered. (2) Those +that alter their direction in a part of that course. + +In the problems before the canoist will be found the combinations of +every degree and variety of these rocks and currents, but the actual +circumstances he has to deal with at any specified moment may--it is +believed--be generally ranged under one or other of the six cases +depicted in the accompanying woodcut. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.] + +In each of the figures in the diagram the current is supposed to run +towards the top of the page, and the general course of the canoe is +supposed to be with the current. The particular direction of the current +is indicated by the dotted lines. The rocks when shaded are supposed to +be _sunk_, and when not shaded they are _breakers_. Thus the current is +uniform in figs. 1, 2, 3; and it is otherwise in figs. 4, 5, 6. The +rocks are all sunk in figs. 1, 2, 3, and 5; whereas in figs. 4 and 6 +there are breakers. The black line in these figures, and in all the +others, shows the proper course of the centre of the boat, and it is +well to habituate oneself to make the course such as that this line +shall never be nearer to the rock than one-half of the boat's length. + +The simplest case that can occur is when the canoe is merely floating +without "way" through a current, and the current bears it near a rock. +If this be a breaker, the current, being deflected, will generally carry +the boat to one side. The steering in such cases is so easy, and its +frequent occurrence gives so much practice, that no more need be said +about it. + +But if the rock be a sunk rock, and if it be not quite plain from the +appearance of the water that there is depth enough over the rock to +float the boat, then it is necessary to pass either above the rock, as +in fig. 1, or below it, as in fig. 2. + +A few days' practice is not thrown away if the canoist seizes every +opportunity of performing under easy circumstances feats which may at +other times have to be done under necessity, and which would not be so +well done if attempted then for the first time. + +Let him, therefore, as soon as possible, become adept in crossing above +or below a single sunk rock with his _boat's bow pointed to any angle of +the semicircle before him_. + +Next we have to consider the cases in which more than one rock will have +to be avoided. Now, however great the number of the rocks may be, they +can be divided into sets of three, and in each of the figures 3, 4, 5, 6 +it is supposed that (for reasons which may be different in each case, +but always sufficient) the canoe has to pass between rocks _A_ and _B_, +and then between _B_ and _C_, but must not pass otherwise between _A_ +and _C_. + +In fig. 3 the course is below _B_, and above _C_, being a combination of +the instance in fig. 2 with that in fig. 1. + +The precise angle to the line of the course which the boat's longer axis +ought to have will depend upon what is to be done next after passing +between _B_ and _C_, and hence the importance of being able to effect +the passages in fig. 1 and fig. 2 with the axis at any required angle. + +We may next suppose that one of the three rocks, say _B_, as in fig. 4, +is a breaker which will deflect the current (as indicated by the dotted +stream lines), and it will then be necessary to modify the angle of the +boat's axis, though the boat's centre has to be kept in the same course +as before. + +It will be seen at once that if _A_ were a breaker the angle would be +influenced in another manner, and that if _C_ were a breaker the angle +at which the boat should emerge from the group of rocks would be +influenced by the stream from _C_ also; but it is only necessary to +remind the reader that all the combinations and permutations of breakers +and sunk rocks need not be separately discussed,--they may be met by the +experience obtained in one case of each class of circumstances. + +Fig. 5 represents a _circular current_ over the group of three rocks. +This is a very deceptive case, for it looks so easy that at first it is +likely to be treated carelessly. If the boat were supposed to be a +substance floating, but without weight, it would have its direction of +motion instantly altered by that of the current. But the boat has +weight, and as it has velocity (that of the current even if the boat is +not urged also by the paddle so as to have "way" through the water), +therefore it will have _momentum_, and the tendency will be to continue +the motion in a straight line, instead of a curve guided solely by the +current. In all these cases, therefore, it will be found (sometimes +inexplicably unless with these considerations) that the boat _insists_ +upon passing between _A_ and _C_, where it must not be allowed to go on +the hypothesis we have started with; and if it effects a compromise by +running upon _C_, this is by no means satisfactory. + +This class of cases includes all those in which the river makes a quick +turn round a rock or a tongue _B_, where the boundary formed by the rock +_A_ on the outer bend of the stream is a solid bank, or a fringe of +growing trees, or of faggots artificially built as a protection against +the erosion of the water. This case occurs, therefore, very frequently +in some fast rivers, say, at least, a hundred times in a day's work, and +perhaps no test of a man's experience and capacity as a canoist is more +decisive than his manner of steering round a fast, sharp bend. + +The tendency of the canoist in such cases is always to bring the boat +round by paddling forward with the outer hand, thereby adding to the +"way," and making the force of the current in its circular turn less +powerful relatively. Whereas, the proper plan is to back with the inner +hand, and so to stop all way in the direction of the boat's length, and +to give the current its full force on the boat. Repeated lessons are +needed before this is learned thoroughly. + +The case we have last remarked upon is made easier if either _A_ or _C_ +is a breaker, but it is very much increased in difficulty if the rock +_B_ is a breaker or is a strong tongue of bank, and so deflects the +current outwards at this critical point. + +The difficulty is often increased by the fact that the water inside of +the curve of the stream may be shoal, and so the paddle on that side +strikes the bottom or grinds along it in backing. + +When the curve is all in deep water, and there is a pool after _B_, the +boat ought not to be turned too quickly in endeavouring to avoid the +rock _C_, else it will sometimes then enter the eddy below _B_, which +runs up stream sometimes for fifty yards. In such a case the absurd +position you are thereby thrown into naturally causes you to struggle to +resist or stem this current; but I have found, after repeated trials of +every plan I could think of, that if once the back current has taken the +canoe it is best to let the boat swing with the eddy so as to make an +entire circuit, until the bow can come back towards _B_ (and below it), +when the nose of the boat may be again thrust into the main stream, +which will now turn the boat round again to its proper course. Much time +and labour may be spent uselessly in a wrong and obstinate contest with +an eddy. + +In fig. 6, where the three rocks are in a straight line, and the middle +one is a breaker, an instance is given when the proper course must be +kept by _backing_ during the first part of it. + +We must suppose for this that the canoist has attained the power of +backing with perfect ease, for it will be quite necessary if he intends +to take his boat safely through several hundred combinations of sunk +rocks and breakers. Presuming this, the case in fig. 6 will be easy +enough, though a little reflection will show that it might be very +difficult, or almost impossible, if the canoist could give only a +forward motion to the boat. + +To pass most artistically, then, through the group of rocks in fig. 6 +the stern should be turned towards _A_, as shown in the diagram, and the +passage across the current, between _A_ and _B_, is to be effected +solely by backing water (and chiefly in this case with the left hand) +until the furthest point of the right of the curve is reached, with the +boat's length still as before in the position represented in the figure. +Then the forward action of both hands will take the canoe speedily +through the passage between _B_ and _C_. + +Cases of this sort are rendered more difficult by the distance of _C_ +from the point above _A_, where you are situated when the decision has +to be made (and in three instants of time) as to what must be done; +also, it would usually be imprudent to rise in the boat in such a place +to survey the rock _C_ from a better position. + +If it is evident that the plan described above will not be applicable, +because other and future circumstances will require the boat's bow to +emerge in the opposite direction (pointing to the right), then you must +enter forwards, and must back between _B_ and _C_, so as to be ready, +after passing _C_, to drive forward, and to the right. It is plain that +this is very much more difficult than the former case, for your backing +now has to be done against the full stream from the breaker _B_. + +In all these instances the action of the wind has been entirely omitted +from consideration, but it must not be forgotten that a strong breeze +materially complicates the problem before the canoist. This is +especially so when the wind is aft; when it is ahead you are not likely +to forget its presence. A strong fair wind (that has scarcely been felt +with your back to it) and the swift stream and the boat's speed from +paddling being all in one direction, the breeze will suddenly become a +new element in the case when you try to cross above a rock as in fig. 1, +and find the wind carries you broadside on against all your +calculations. + +Nor have I any observations to make as to sailing among rocks in a +current. The canoe must be directed solely by the paddle in a long +rapid, and in the other places the course to be steered by a boat +sailing is the same as if it were being merely paddled, though the +action of the wind has to be carefully taken into consideration. + +In all these things boldness and skill come only after lessons of +experience, and the canoist will find himself ready and able, at the end +of his voyage, to sail down a rapid which he would have approached +timidly, even with the paddle, at the beginning. + +But perhaps enough has been said for the experienced oarsman, while +surely more than enough has been said to shew the tyro aspirant what +varied work he has to do, and how interesting are the circumstances that +will occupy his attention on a delightful river tour. + + +NOTE ON THE "KENT."--The narrative of a shipwreck referred to at page +219 has been published 40 years ago, and in many foreign languages, but +its circulation is very large at the present time. The following letter +about one of the incidents related in the little book, appeared in the +"Times" of March 22, 1866:-- + + "LETTERS FROM THE DEEP. + + "_To the Editor of the 'Times.'_ + + "Sir,--As attention has been drawn to the letters written on + board the ship London, and washed ashore, it may be interesting + to notice the following remarkable incident respecting a letter + from another ship wrecked in the Bay of Biscay. In March, 1825, + the Kent, East Indiaman, took fire in the Bay of Biscay during + a storm while 641 persons were on board, most of them soldiers + of the 31st Regiment. When all hope was gone, and before a + little vessel was seen which ultimately saved more than 500 + people from the Kent, Major ---- wrote a few lines and enclosed + the paper in a bottle, which was left in the cabin. Nineteen + months after this the writer of the paper arrived in the island + of Barbadoes, in command of another Regiment, and he was amazed + to find that the bottle (cast into the sea by the explosion + that destroyed the Kent) had been washed ashore on that very + island. The paper, with its faint pencil lines expressing + Christian faith, is still preserved; and this account of it can + be authenticated by those who were saved. + + "I am, your obedient servant, + "ONE OF THEM." + +The bottle, after its long immersion, was thickly covered with weeds and +barnacles. The following are the words of the "Letter from the Deep," +which it contained:-- + + "The ship the Kent, Indiaman, is on fire--Elizabeth Joanna and + myself commit our spirits into the hands of our blessed + Redeemer--His grace enables us to be quite composed in the + awful prospect of entering eternity. + + "D. M'GREGOR. + "_1st March, 1825, Bay of Biscay._" + +The writer of that letter lives now with blessings on his venerable +head, while he who records it anew is humbly grateful to God for his own +preservation. And may we not say of every one who reads such words, +written in such an hour, that his life would be unspeakably happy if he +could lay hold now of so firm a Surety, and be certain to keep fast hold +to the end? + + +The following notes are on miscellaneous points:-- + +(_a_) We are sometimes asked about such a canoe voyage as this, "Is it +not very dangerous?" + +There seems to me to be no necessary danger in the descent of a river in +a canoe; but if you desire to make it as safe as possible you must get +out at each difficult place and examine the course, and if the course is +too difficult you may take the boat past the danger by land. + +On the other hand, if the excitement and novelty of finding out a course +on the spur of the moment is to be enjoyed, then, no doubt, there is +more danger to the boat. + +As for danger to the canoist, it is supposed, _imprimis_, that he is +well able to swim, not only in a bath when stripped, but when +unexpectedly thrown into the water with his clothes on, and that he +_knows_ he can rely on this capacity. + +If this be so, the chief danger to him occurs when he meets a steamer on +rough water (rare enough on such a tour); for if his boat is upset by +that, and his head is broken by the paddle floats, the swimming powers +are futile for safety. + +The danger incurred by the boat is certainly both considerable and +frequent, but nothing short of the persuasion that the boat would be +smashed if a great exertion is not made will incite the canoist to those +very exertions which are the charm of travelling, when spirit, strength, +and skill are to be proved. Men have their various lines of exercise as +they have of duty. The huntsman may not understand the pleasures of a +rapid, nor the boatman care for the delights of a "bullfinch." +Certainly, however, the waterman can say that a good horse may carry a +bad rider well, but that the best boat will not take a bad boatman +through a mile of broken water. In each case there is, perhaps, a little +of _populus me sibilat_, and it may possibly be made up for by a good +deal of _at mihi plaudo_. + +(_b_) It has been said that the constant use of a canoe paddle must +contract the chest, but this is certainly a mistake. If, indeed, you +merely dabble each blade of the paddle in the water without taking the +full length of the stroke the shoulders are not thrown back, and the +effect will be injurious; but exactly the same is true if you scull or +row with a short jerky stroke. + +In a proper use of the paddle the arms ought to be in turn fully +extended, and then brought well back, so that the hand touches the side, +and the chest is then well plied in both directions. + +In using the single-bladed paddle, of which I have had experience in +Canada and New Brunswick with the Indians in bark canoes and log canoes, +there seems to be a less beneficial action on the pectoral muscles, but +after three months' use of the double paddle I found the arms much +strengthened, while clothes that fitted before were all too narrow round +the chest when put on after this exercise. + +(_c_) In shallow water the paddle should be clasped lightly, so that if +it strikes the bottom or a rock the hand will yield and not the blade be +broken. + +Great caution should be used when placing the blade in advance to meet a +rock, or even a gravel bank, otherwise it gets jammed in the rock or +gravel, or the boat overrides it. + +It is better in such a case to retard the speed rather by dragging the +paddle (tenderly), and always with its flat side downwards, so that the +edge does not get nipped. + +(_d_) M. Farcôt, a French engineer, has lately exhibited on the Thames a +boat which is rowed by the oarsman sitting with his face to the bow, who +by this means secures one of the advantages of the canoe--that of seeing +where you are going. + +To effect this, a short prop or mast about three feet high is fixed in +the boat, and the two sculls are jointed to it by their handles, while +their weight is partly sustained by a strong spiral spring acting near +the joint, and in such a manner as to keep the blade of the scull a few +inches from the surface of the water when it is not pressed down +purposely. + +The sculler then sits with his face towards the mast and the bow, and he +holds in each hand a rod jointed to the loom of the corresponding scull. +By this means each scull is moved on the mast as a fulcrum with the +power applied between that and the water. The operation of feathering is +partially performed, and to facilitate this there is an ingeniously +contrived guide. + +This invention appears to be new, but it is evident that the plan +retains many of the disadvantages of common sculls, and it leaves the +double paddle quite alone as a simple means for propelling a canoe in +narrow or tortuous channels, or where it has to meet waves, weeds, +rocks, or trees, and moreover has to sail. + +However, the muscular power of the arms can be applied with good effect +in this new manner, and I found it not very difficult to learn the use +of this French rowing apparatus, which is undoubtedly very ingenious, +and deserves a full trial before a verdict is pronounced. + +(_e_) In a difficult place where the boat is evidently going too near a +rock, the disposition of the canoist is to change the direction by a +_forward_ stroke on one side, but this adds to the force with which a +collision may be invested. It is often better to _back_ a stroke on the +other side, and thus to lessen this force; and this is nearly always +possible to be done even when the boat appears to be simply drifting on +the stream. In fact, as a maxim, there is always steerage way sufficient +to enable the paddle to be used exactly as a rudder. + +(_f_) When there is a brilliant glare of the sun, and it is low, and +directly in front, and it is impossible to bear its reflection on the +water, a good plan is to direct the bow to some point you are to steer +for, and then observe the reflection of the sun on the cedar deck of the +boat. Having done this you may lower the peak of your hat so as to cut +off the direct rays of the sun, and its reflected rays on the water, +while you steer simply by the light on the deck. + +(_g_) When a great current moves across a river to a point where it +seems very unlikely to have an exit, you may be certain that some +unusual conformation of the banks or of the river bed will be found +there, and caution should be used in approaching the place. This, +however, is less necessary when the river is deep. Such cross currents +are frequent on the Rhine, but they result merely from unevenness in the +bottom far below, and thus we see how the rapids, most dangerous when +the river is low, become quite agreeable and safe in high flood time. + +(_h_) The ripple and bubbles among weeds are so totally different from +those on free water that their appearance at a distance as a criterion +of the depth, current, and direction of the channel must be learned +separately. In general, where weeds are under water, and can sway or +wave about, there will be water enough to pass--the requisite 3 inches. +Backing up stream against long weeds is so troublesome, and so sure to +sway the stern round athwart stream, that it is best to force the boat +forward instead, even if you have to get out and pull her through. + +(_i_) Paddling through rushes, or flags, or other plants above the +water, so as to cut off a corner, is a mistake. Much more "way" is lost +then by the friction than might be supposed. + +(_j_) I noticed a very curious boat-bridge across the Rhine below Basle. +It seemed to open wide without swinging, and on coming close to it the +plan was found to be this. The boats of one half of the bridge were +drawn towards the shore, and a stage connecting them ran on wheels along +rails inwards from the river, and up an incline on the bank. This system +is ingenious, convenient, and philosophical. + +(_k_) Double-hulled boats have often been tried for sailing, but their +disadvantages are manifest when the craft is on a large scale, though +for toy-boats they answer admirably, and they are now quite fashionable +on the Serpentine. + +The double boat of the nautical tinman on the Rhine, before described, +was a "fond conceit." But there are many double-hulled boats on French +rivers, and they have this sole recommendation, that you sit high up, +and so can fish without fearing you may "turn the turtle." + +When the two hulls are reduced as much as possible, this sort of boat +becomes an aquatic "walking machine," for one foot then rests on each +hull. Propulsion is obtained either by linking the hulls together with +parallel bars moving on studs, while vanes are on each side, so as to +act like fins, and to collapse for the alternate forward stroke of each +foot bound to its hull--or a square paddle, or a pole works on the water +or on the bottom. I have always noticed that the proprietors of such +craft are ingenious, obstinate men, proud of their peculiar mode, and +very touchy when it is criticised. However, it is usually best, and it +is fortunately always easy, to paddle away from them. + +(_l_) The hard exercise of canoe paddling, the open-air motion, constant +working of the muscles about the stomach, and free perspiration result +in good appetite and pleasant sleepiness at night. But at the end of the +voyage the change of diet and cessation of exercise will be apt to cause +derangement in the whole system, and especially in the digestion, if the +high condition or "training" be not cautiously lowered into the humdrum +"constitutionals" of more ordinary life. Still I have found it very +agreeable to take a paddle in the Rob Roy up to Hammersmith and back +even in December and March. + +The last public occasion on which she appeared was on April 17, when the +captain offered her aid to the Chief Constructor of the Navy in the +effort of the Admiralty to launch the ironclad Northumberland. The offer +was eagerly accepted, and the launch was accordingly successful. + +The Rob Roy has since departed for a voyage to Norway and Iceland in the +schooner yacht Sappho, whose young owner, Mr. W. F. Lawton, has +promised "to be kind to her." It is intended that a new Rob Roy should +make a voyage next summer with another canoe called the "Robin Hood." + +(_m_) Other pleasant voyages may be suggested for the holiday of the +canoist. One of these might begin with the Thames, and then down the +Severn, along the north coast of Devon, and so by the river Dart to +Plymouth. Another on the Solent, and round the Isle of Wight. The Dee +might be descended by the canoe, and then to the left through the Menai +Straits. Or a longer trip may be made through the Cumberland lakes by +Windermere and the Derwent, or from Edinburgh by the Forth, into the +Clyde, and through the Kyles of Bute to Oban; then along the Caledonian +Canal, until the voyager can get into the Tay for a swift run eastward. + +But why not begin at Gothenburg and pass through the pretty lakes of +Sweden to Stockholm, and then skirt the lovely archipelago of green +isles in the Gulf of Bothnia, until you get to Petersburg? + +For one or other of such tours a fishing-rod and an air rifle, and for +all of them a little dog, would be a great addition to the outfit. + +In some breezy lake of these perhaps, or on some rushing river, the +little Rob Roy may hope to meet the reader's canoe; and when the sun is +setting, and the wavelets ripple sleepily, the pleasures of the paddle +will be known far better than they have been told by the pen. + + +C. A. Macintosh, Printer, Great New-street, London. + + + + + _Milton House, Ludgate Hill, + April, 1866._ + +A List of + +SAMPSON LOW & CO.'S + +NEW WORKS. + + +_A BIOGRAPHY of ADMIRAL SIR B.P.V. BROKE, Bart., K.C.B._ By the Rev. +JOHN G. BRIGHTON, Rector of Kent Town. Dedicated by express permission +to His Royal Highness Prince Alfred. 8vo., price 20_s._ + +_THE GREAT SCHOOLS of ENGLAND._ A History of the Foundation, Endowments, +and Discipline of the chief Seminaries of Learning in England; including +Eton, Winchester, Westminster, St. Paul's, Charterhouse, Merchant +Taylors', Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, &c.; with notices of distinguished +Scholars. By HOWARD STAUNTON, Esq. With numerous Illustrations. 8vo., +handsomely bound in cloth, price 12_s._ + + "The book is as full of solid matter as of gossiping narrative + and pleasant anecdote. As a handbook to our great schools Mr. + Staunton's volume will have a wide class of + readers."--_Athenæum._ + +_SOCIAL LIFE of the CHINESE_; with some Account of their Religion, +Government, Educational, and Business Customs and Opinions. By the Rev. +J. DOOLITTLE, Fourteen Years Member of the Fuhchou Mission of the +American Board. With 150 Illustrations. 3 vols. 8vo., 24_s._ + + "We have no hesitation in saying that from these pages may be + gathered more information about the social life of the Chinese + than can be obtained from any other source. The importance of + the work as a key to a right understanding of the character of + so vast a portion of the human race ought to insure it an + extensive circulation."--_Athenæum._ + +_CAPTAIN HALL'S LIFE with the ESQUIMAUX._ New and Cheaper Edition, with +Coloured Engravings and upwards of 100 Woodcuts. With a Map. Price 7_s._ +6_d._, cloth extra. Forming the cheapest and most popular Edition of a +work on Arctic Life and Exploration ever published. + + "This is a very remarkable book; and unless we very much + misunderstand both him and his book, the author is one of those + men of whom great nations do well to be proud."--_Spectator._ + +_THE CRUISE of the FROLIC._ By W. H. G. KINGSTON. A Story for Young +Yacht-loving People. Illustrated Edition, price 5_s._ + + "Who does not welcome Mr. W.H.G. Kingston? Here he is again + with an admirable boys' book. If boys do not love this book + there is no truth in boyhood, and no use in reviewing; it is + just the book for a present."--_Illustrated Times._ + +_UNDER the WAVES;_ or, the Hermit Crab in Society. A Book for the +Seaside. 3_s._ 6_d._; or gilt edges, 4_s._ + + "This is one of the best books we know of to place in the hands + of young and intelligent persons during a visit to the + seaside."--_Reader._ + +_A WALK from LONDON to the LAND'S END_; with Notes by the Way. By ELIHU +BURRITT. With Illustrations. 8vo., price 12_s._ + +_A WALK from LONDON to JOHN O'GROAT'S._ By the same Author. A New and +Cheaper Edition. Price 6_s._ + +_ESSAYS by MONTAIGNE._ Choicely printed. With Vignette Portrait. Small +post 8vo., price 6_s._ + +_A SECOND SERIES of the GENTLE LIFE._ Uniform with the First Series. +Second Edition. Small post, price 6_s._ + +_THE GENTLE LIFE;_ Essays on the Formation of Character of Gentlemen and +Gentlewomen. Sixth Edition. Price 6_s._ + +_LIKE UNTO CHRIST._ A New Translation of the 'DE IMITATIONE CHRISTI,' +usually ascribed to Thomas à Kempis. Beautifully printed on toned paper, +with a Vignette, from an Original Drawing by Sir Thomas Lawrence. 12mo. +cloth extra, price 6_s._; or, handsomely bound in calf antique, 12_s._ + +_BEES and BEE-KEEPING._ By the 'TIMES BEEMASTER.' A Manual for all who +Keep, or wish to Keep, Bees. With numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo. +cloth, 5_s._ + + "Few letters that have appeared in these columns have been more + popular than those addressed to us by the Beemaster. We do not + wish to detract from this praise in saying that they were + popular because the subject is popular. Bees have always been + interesting to mankind, and no man of ordinary intelligence can + describe in any detail their natural history without unfolding + a little romance--a kind of fairy annals, that fills us with + wonder and insures our attention. But our friend the Beemaster + has the knack of exposition, and knows how to tell a story + well; over and above which, he tells a story so that thousands + can take a practical and not merely a speculative interest in + it."--_Times._ + + LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, SON, & MARSTON, + MILTON HOUSE, LUDGATE HILL. + + + + +A List of Books + +PUBLISHING BY + +_SAMPSON LOW, SON, and MARSTON._ + +_MILTON HOUSE, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON._ + +[Illustration] + +** _When the price is not given, the work was not ready at the +time of issuing this list._ + + [_February 1, 1866._ + + +NEW ILLUSTRATED WORKS. + +THE GREAT SCHOOLS OF ENGLAND. A History of the Foundation, Endowments, +and Discipline of the chief Seminaries of Learning in England; including +Eton, Winchester, Westminster, St. Paul's, Charterhouse, Merchant +Taylors', Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, &c; with notices of distinguished +Scholars. By Howard Staunton, Esq. With numerous Illustrations. One +volume 8vo., handsomely bound in cloth, price 12_s._ + + "_The book is as full of solid matter as of gossiping narrative + and pleasant anecdote. As a handbook to our great schools Mr. + Staunton's volume will have a wide class of + readers._"--Athenæum. + + "_Cannot fail to be interesting to all fathers and mothers, and + it appeals to the sympathies of everyone who has been a boy, + and has been educated at a public school. Good store of + anecdote, amusing and pathetic, has been provided; and the + exquisite letters written to the famous poet, soldier, and + gentleman, Sir Philip Sydney, by his father and mother, when + the future 'Scipio, Cicero, and Petrarch of his time' was a boy + at Shrewsbury, are wonderfully moving, and worthy of the + attention of every father, every mother, and every + son._"--Illustrated London News. + + "_The work is so full of practical information on the details + of school life at these great foundations that it may be + regarded as a guide book to all who contemplate sending their + sons thither. For all such the volume must have a solid value, + as enabling them to compare the several systems prevailing at + different places, and to determine beforehand which offers the + greatest advantages. The subject, however, is interesting to + all intelligent Englishmen, and the book has, therefore, a + general attraction beyond the circle which it specially + addresses._"--London Review. + +The Pleasures of Memory. By Samuel Rogers. Illustrated with Twenty +Designs, forming a volume of "Cundall's Choice of Choice Books." Small +4to. price 5_s._ + +The Divine and Moral Songs of Dr. Watts: a New and very choice Edition. +Illustrated with One Hundred Woodcuts in the first style of the Art, +from Original Designs by Eminent Artists; engraved by J. D. Cooper. +Small 4to. cloth extra, price 7_s._ 6_d._ + +Pictures of Society, Grave and Gay; comprising One Hundred Engravings on +Wood, from the Pictures of Eminent Artists; including J. E. Millais, +A.R.A., F. W. Pickersgill, R.A., C. W. Cope, R.A., J. D. Watson, George +Thomas, Marcus Stone, &c. Illustrated by the Pens of Popular Authors; +including Mrs. S. C. Hall, E. K. 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With comprehensive Index. 8vo. 2_s._ +6_d._ Also Supplement, 1837-60. 8vo. 6_d._ + +Dr. Worcester's New and Greatly Enlarged Dictionary of the English +Language. Adapted for Library or College Reference, comprising 40,000 +Words more than Johnson's Dictionary, and 250 pages more than the Quarto +Edition of Webster's Dictionary. In one Volume, royal 4to. cloth, 1,834 +pp. price 31_s._ 6_d._ The Cheapest Book ever published. + + "The volumes before us show a vast amount of diligence; but + with Webster it is diligence in combination with + fancifulness,--with Worcester in combination with good sense + and judgment. 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Large fcap. +8vo. cloth, 5_s._ + + "_Who does not welcome Mr. W. H. G. Kingston? Here he is again + with an admirable boys' book. If boys do not love this book, + there is no truth in boyhood, and no use in reviewing; it is + just the book for a present._"--Illustrated Times. + +_Also by the same Author, well illustrated,_ + + The Boy's Own Book of Boats. Illustrated by Weedon. 5_s._ + Ernest Bracebridge; or, the Boy's Book of Sports. 5_s._ + Jack Buntline: the Life of a Sailor Boy. 2_s._ + The Fire Ships. + + [_Shortly._ + +Golden Hair; a Story for Young People. By Sir Lascelles Wraxall, Bart. +With Eight full page Illustrations, 5_s._ + + "_Full of incident and adventure, and sure to please boys home + from school quite as much as his 'Black Panther' of last + year._"--Reader. + + "_A thoroughly good boy's book; the story is full of incident + and always moves on._"--Spectator. + +_Also, same price, full of Illustrations:--_ + + Black Panther: a Boy's Adventures among the Red Skins. + Life among the Indians. By George Catlin. + The Voyage of the Constance. By Mary Gillies. + Stanton Grange. By the Rev. C. J. Atkinson. + Boyhood of Martin Luther. By Henry Mayhew. + Stories of the Woods. From Cooper's Tales. + The Story of Peter Parley's own Life. + +Noodle-doo. By the Author of "The Stories that Little Breeches told." +With 16 large Engravings on Steel. Plain, 5_s._; coloured, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + "_Among all the Christmas bookmen Mr. Charles Bennett ranks + first, for he who best pleases children has the best right to + priority in a notice of Christmas books, and to all his + productions we venture to prefer 'Noodle-doo;' it will make the + youngsters crow again with delight._"--Standard. + +_Also, now ready, same size and price, and full of Illustrations._ + + Great Fun for our Little Friends. By Harriet Myrtle. + More Fun for our Little Friends. By the same Author. + The Book of Blockheads. By Charles Bennett. + The Stories that Little Breeches told. By the same Author. + Mr. Wind and Madame Rain. Illustrated by Charles Bennett. + +Paul Duncan's Little by Little; a Tale for Boys. Edited by Frank +Freeman. With an Illustration by Charles Keene. Fcap. 8vo. cloth 2_s._; +gilt edges, 2_s._ 6_d._ Also, same price, + + Boy Missionary; a Tale for Young People. By Mrs. J. M. Parker. + Difficulties Overcome. By Miss Brightwell. + The Babes in the Basket: a Tale in the West Indian Insurrection. + Jack Buntline; the Life of a Sailor Boy. By W. H. G. Kingston. + +The Swiss Family Robinson; or, the Adventures of a Father and Mother and +Four Sons on a Desert Island. With Explanatory Notes and Illustrations. +First and Second Series. New Edition, complete in one volume, 3_s._ +6_d._ + +Geography for my Children. By Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Author of +"Uncle Tom's Cabin," &c. Arranged and Edited by an English Lady, under +the Direction of the Authoress. With upwards of Fifty Illustrations. +Cloth extra, 4_s._ 6_d._ + +Stories of the Woods; or, the Adventures of Leather-Stocking: A Book for +Boys, compiled from Cooper's Series of "Leather-Stocking Tales." Fcap. +cloth, Illustrated, 5_s._ + + "_I have to own that I think the heroes of another writer, viz. + 'Leather-Stocking,' 'Uncas,' 'Hard Heart,' 'Tom Coffin,' are + quite the equals of Sir Walter Scott's men;--perhaps + 'Leather-Stocking' is better than any one in Scott's lot._"--W. + M. THACKERAY. + +Child's Play. Illustrated with Sixteen Coloured Drawings by E. V. B., +printed in fac-simile by W. Dickes' process, and ornamented with Initial +Letters. New edition, with India paper tints, royal 8vo. cloth extra, +bevelled cloth, 7_s._ 6_d._ The Original Edition of this work was +published at One Guinea. + +Child's Delight. Forty-two Songs for the Little Ones, with forty-two +Pictures. 1_s._; coloured, 2_s._ 6_d._ + +Goody Platts, and her Two Cats. By Thomas Miller. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, +1_s._ + +Little Blue Hood: a Story for Little People. By Thomas Miller, with +coloured frontispiece. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._ + +Mark Willson's First Reader. By the Author of "The Picture Alphabet" and +"The Picture Primer." With 120 Pictures. 1_s._ + +The Picture Alphabet; or Child's First Letter Book. With new and +original Designs. 6_d._ + +The Picture Primer. 6_d._ + + +HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. + +The Conspiracy of Count Fieschi: an Episode in Italian History. By M. De +Celesia. Translated by David Hilton, Esq., Author of a "History of +Brigandage." With Portrait. 8vo. + + [_Shortly._ + +A Biography of Admiral Sir B. P. V. Broke, Bart., K.C.B. By the Rev. +John Brighton, Rector of Kent Town. Dedicated by express permission to +His Royal Highness Prince Alfred. + + [_Shortly._ + +A History of Brigandage in Italy; with Adventures of the more celebrated +Brigands. By David Hilton, Esq. 2 vols, post 8vo. cloth, 16_s._ + +A History of the Gipsies, with Specimens of the Gipsy Language. By +Walter Simson. Post 8vo. + +A History of West Point, the United States Military Academy and its +Military Importance. By Capt. E. C. Boynton, A. M. With Plans and +Illustrations. 8vo. 21_s._ + +The Twelve Great Battles of England, from Hastings to Waterloo. With +Plans, fcap. 8vo. cloth extra, 3_s._ 6_d._ + +George Washington's Life, by Washington Irving. 5 vols. royal 8vo. +12_s._ each Library Illustrated Edition. 5 vols. Imp. 8vo. 4_l._ 4_s._ + +Plutarch's Lives. An entirely new Library Edition, carefully revised and +corrected, with some Original Translations by the Editor. Edited by A. +H. Clough, Esq. sometime Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and late +Professor of English Language and Literature at University College. 5 +vols. 8vo. cloth. 2_l._ 10_s._ + + "_Mr. Clough's work is worthy of all praise, and we hope that + it will tend to revive the study of Plutarch._"--Times. + +Life of John Adams, 2nd President of the United States, by C. F. Adams. +8vo. 14_s._ Life and Works complete, 10 vols. 14_s._ each. + +Life and Administration of Abraham Lincoln. Fcap. 8vo. stiff cover, +1_s._; with map, speeches, &c. crown 8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._ + + +TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE. + +A Walk from London to the Land's End. By Elihu Burritt, Author of "A +Walk from London to John O'Groats:" with several Illustrations. Large +post 8vo. Uniform with the first edition of "John O'Groats." 12_s._ + +A Walk from London to John O'Groats. With Notes by the Way. By Elihu +Burritt. Second and cheaper edition. With Photographic Portrait of the +Author. Small post 8vo. 6_s._ + +Social Life of the Chinese: with some account of their religious, +governmental, educational, and Business customs and opinions. By the +Rev. Justus Doolittle. With over 100 Illustrations, in two vols. Demy +8vo. cloth, 24_s._ + +A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe, or Rivers and Lakes of Europe. By +John Macgregor, M.A. With numerous Illustrations. Post 8vo. cloth, 5_s._ + +Captain Hall's Life with the Esquimaux. New and cheaper Edition, with +Coloured Engravings and upwards of 100 Woodcuts. With a Map. Price 7_s._ +6_d._ cloth extra. Forming the cheapest and most popular Edition of a +work on Arctic Life and Exploration ever published. + + "_This is a very remarkable book, and unless we very much + misunderstand both him and his book, the author is one of those + men of whom great nations do well to be proud._"--Spectator. + + "_If Capt. Hall should survive the perils of the journey on + which he is now engaged, we are convinced he will bring home + some news, be it good or bad, about the Franklin expedition. He + can hardly be expected back before the autumn of 1866. But if + he has gone he has left us his vastly entertaining volumes, + which contain much valuable information, as we have said, + concerning the Esquimaux tribes. These volumes are the best + that we have ever met with, concerning the people and things to + be found among 'the thick ribb'd ice.'_"--Standard. + + "_The pen of Wilkie Collins would fail to describe in more + life-like terms of horror the episode of the cannibal crew + escaped from a whaler who boarded the 'George Henry' on the + outward passage of that ship. We are tempted to relate how an + Innuit throws a summersault in the water in his_ kyack, _boat + and all, and to introduce our readers to our Author's dogs, + including the famous Barbekerk; but we must pause, and refer to + this most interesting work itself, which will repay + perusal._"--Press. + +A Winter in Algeria, 1863-4. By Mrs. George Albert Rogers. With +illustrations. 8vo. cloth, 12_s._ + +Ten Days in a French Parsonage. By Rev. G. M. Musgrave. 2 vols. post +8vo. 16_s._ + +Turkey. By J. Lewis Farley, F.S.S., Author of "Two Years in Syria." With +Illustrations in Chromo-lithography, and a Portrait of His Highness Fuad +Pasha. 8vo. + + [_Shortly._ + +Letters on England. By Louis Blanc. 2 vols, post 8vo. + + [_Shortly._ + +House and Home in Belgium. By Blanchard Jerrold. Author of "At Home in +Paris." Post 8vo. + + [_Shortly._ + +The Story of the Great March: a Diary of General Sherman's Campaign +through Georgia and the Carolinas. By Brevet-Major G. W. Nichols, +Aide-de-Camp to General Sherman. With a coloured Map and numerous +Illustrations. 12mo. cloth, price 7_s._ 6_d._ + +Cape Cod. By Henry D. Thoreau. 12mo. cloth, 7_s._ 6_d._ + +Arabian Days and Nights; or, Rays from the East: a Narrative. By +Marguerite A. Power. 1 vol. Post 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._ + + "Miss Power's book is thoroughly interesting and does much + credit to her talent for observation and description."--_London + Review._ + +Wild Scenes in South America; or, Life in the Llanos of Venezuela. By +Don Ramon Paez. Numerous Illustrations. Post 8vo. cloth, 10_s._ 6_d._ + +After Icebergs with a Painter; a Summer's Voyage to Labrador. By the +Rev. Louis L. Noble. Post 8vo. with coloured plates, cloth, 10_s._ 6_d._ + +The Prairie and Overland Traveller; a Companion for Emigrants, Traders, +Travellers, Hunters, and Soldiers, traversing great Plains and Prairies. +By Capt. R. B. Marcey. Illustrated. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4_s._ 6_d._ + +The States of Central America, by E. G. Squier. Cloth. 18_s._ + +Home and Abroad (_Second Series_). A Sketch-book of Life, Men, and +Travel, by Bayard Taylor. With Illustrations, post 8vo. cloth, 8_s._ +6_d._ + +Northern Travel. Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Lapland, and +Norway, by Bayard Taylor. 1 vol. post 8vo., cloth, 8_s._ 6_d._ + +_Also by the same Author, each complete in 1 vol., with Illustrations._ + + Central Africa; Egypt and the White Nile. 7_s._ 6_d._ + India, China, and Japan. 7_s._ 6_d._ + Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain. 7_s._ 6_d._ + Travels in Greece and Russia. With an Excursion to Crete. 7_s._ 6_d._ + + +INDIA, AMERICA, AND THE COLONIES. + +A History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia; or an Account +of the Progress of Geographical Discovery in that Continent, from the +Earliest Period to the Present Day. By the Rev. Julian E. Tenison Woods, +F.R.G.S., &c., &c. 2 vols, demy 8vo. cloth, 28_s._ + +The Confederation of the British North American Provinces; their past +History and future Prospects; with a map, &c. By Thomas Rawlings. 8vo. +cloth, 5_s._ + +Canada in 1864; a Hand-book for Settlers. By Henry T. N. Chesshyre. +Fcap. 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ + +The Colony of Victoria: its History, Commerce, and Gold Mining: its +Social and Political Institutions, down to the End of 1863. With +Remarks, Incidental and Comparative, upon the other Australian Colonies. +By William Westgarth, Author of "Victoria and the Gold Mines," &c. 8vo. +with a Map, cloth, 16_s._ + +Tracks of McKinlay and Party across Australia. By John Davis, one of the +Expedition. Edited from the MS. Journal of Mr. Davis, with an +Introductory View of the recent Explorations of Stuart, Burke, Wills, +Landsborough and others. By Wm. Westgarth. With numerous Illustrations +in chromo-lithography, and Map. 8vo. cloth, 16_s._ + +The Ordeal of Free Labour in the British West Indies. By William G. +Sewell. Post 8vo. cloth, 7_s._ 6_d._ + +The Progress and Present State of British India; a Manual of Indian +History, Geography, and Finance, for general use; based upon Official +Documents, furnished under the authority of Her Majesty's Secretary of +State for India. By Montgomery Martin, Esq., Author of a "History of the +British Colonies," &c. In one volume, post 8vo. cloth, 10_s._ 6_d._ + +Colonial Essays. Translated from the Dutch, post 8vo. cloth, 6_s._ + +The Cotton Kingdom: a Traveller's Observations on Cotton and Slavery in +America, based upon three former volumes of Travels and Explorations. By +Frederick Law Olmsted. With a Map. 2 vols, post 8vo. 1_l._ 1_s._ + + "_Mr. Olmsted gives his readers a wealth of facts conveyed in a + long stream of anecdotes, the exquisite humour of many of them + making parts of his book as pleasant to read as a novel of the + first class._"--Athenæum. + +A History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of +the United States of America, with Notices of its Principal Framers. By +George Ticknor Curtis, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. Cloth, 1_l._ 4_s._ + + "_Mr. Curtis writes with dignity and vigour, and his work will + be one of permanent interest._"--Athenæum. + +The Principles of Political Economy applied to the Condition, the +Resources, and Institutions of the American People. By Francis Bowen. +8vo. Cloth, 14_s._ + +A History of New South Wales from the Discovery of New Holland in 1616 +to the present time. By the late Roderick Flanagan, Esq., Member of the +Philosophical Society of New South Wales. 2 vols. 8vo. 24_s._ + +Canada and its Resources. Two Prize Essays, by Hogan and Morris. 7_s._, +or separately, 1_s._ 6_d._ each, and Map, 3_s._ + + +SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY. + +A Dictionary of Photography, on the Basis of Sutton's Dictionary. +Rewritten by Professor Dawson, of King's College, Editor of the "Journal +of Photography;" and Thomas Sutton, B.A., Editor of "Photograph Notes." +8vo. with numerous Illustrations. + + [_Shortly._ + +The Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology; or, the Economy +of the Sea and its Adaptations, its Salts, its Waters, its Climates, its +Inhabitants, and whatever there may be of general interest in its +Commercial Uses or Industrial Pursuits. By Commander M. F. Maury, LL.D. +Tenth Edition, being the Second Edition of the Author's revised and +enlarged Work. Post 8vo. cloth extra, 8_s._ 6_d._; cheap edition, small +post 8vo. 5_s._ + +_This edition, as well as its immediate predecessor, includes all the +researches and observations of the last three years, and is copyright in +England and on the Continent._ + + "We err greatly if Lieut. Maury's book will not hereafter be + classed with the works of the great men who have taken the lead + in extending and improving knowledge and art; his book displays + in a remarkable degree, like the 'Advancement of Learning,' and + the 'Natural History' of Buffon, profound research and + magnificent imagination."--_Illustrated London News._ + +The Structure of Animal Life. By Louis Agassiz. With 46 Diagrams. 8vo. +cloth, 10_s._ 6_d._ + +The Kedge Anchor; or, Young Sailor's Assistant, by William Brady. +Seventy Illustrations. 8vo. 16_s._ + +Theory of the Winds, by Capt. Charles Wilkes. 8vo. cl. 8_s._ 6_d._ + +Archaia; or, Studies of the Cosmogony and Natural History of the Hebrew +Scriptures. By Professor Dawson, Principal of McGill College, Canada. +Post 8vo. cloth, cheaper edition, 6_s._ + +Ichnographs, from the Sandstone of the Connecticut River, Massachusetts, +U. S. A. By James Dean, M.D. One volume, 4to. with Forty-six Plates, +cloth, 27_s._ + +The Recent Progress of Astronomy, by Elias Loomis, LL.D. 3rd Edition. +Post 8vo. 7_s._ 6_d._ + +An Introduction to Practical Astronomy, by the Same. 8vo. cloth. 8_s._ + +Manual of Mineralogy, including Observations on Mines, Rocks, Reduction +of Ores, and the Application of the Science to the Arts, with 260 +Illustrations. Designed for the Use of Schools and Colleges. By James D. +Dana, A.M., Author of a "System of Mineralogy." New Edition, revised and +enlarged. 12mo. Half bound, 7_s._ 6_d._ + +The Ocean Telegraph Cable; its Construction, &c. and Submersion +Explained. By W. Rowett. 8vo. cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._ + +Cyclopædia of Mathematical Science, by Davies and Peck. 8vo. Sheep. +18_s._ + + +TRADE, AGRICULTURE, DOMESTIC ECONOMY, ETC. + +Railway Practice, European and American; comprising the economical +generation of Steam, the adaptation of Wood and Coke-burning Engines to +Coal Burning, and in Permanent Way, including Road-bed, Sleepers, Rails, +Joint-fastenings, Street Railways, &c. By Alexander L. Holley, Joint +Author of Colburn and Holley's "Permanent Way," &c. Demy folio, with 77 +Engravings, half-morocco. 3_l._ 3_s._ + +Hunt's Merchants' Magazine (Monthly). 2_s._ 6_d._ + +The Book of Farm Implements, and their Construction; by John L. Thomas. +With 200 Illustrations. 12mo. 6_s._ 6_d._ + +The Practical Surveyor's Guide; by A. Duncan. Fcp. 8vo. 4_s._ 6_d._ + +Villas and Cottages; by Calvert Vaux, Architect. 300 Illustrations. 8vo. +cloth. 12_s._ + +Bee-Keeping. By "The Times" Bee-master. Small post 8vo. numerous +Illustrations, cloth, 5_s._ + + "_The Bee-master has done a good work, which outweighs a + cartload of mistakes, in giving an impetus to bee-keeping + throughout the country. Here is a simple and graceful + amusement, which is also a profitable one. The keeping of bees + needs no great skill and but a small outlay. The result, + however, besides the amusement which it affords is a store of + honey that in the present state of the market may make a + considerable addition to the income of a poor cotter, and may + even be worthy the ambition of an underpaid curate or a + lieutenant on half-pay._"--Times, Jan. 11, 1865. + +The English and Australian Cookery Book. Small post 8vo. Coloured +Illustrations, cloth extra, 4_s._ 6_d._ + +The Bubbles of Finance: the Revelations of a City Man. Fcap. 8vo. fancy +boards, price 2_s._ 6_d._ + + _The_ Times _of May 21st in a leading article referring to the + above work, says:_--"_We advise our young friends to read some + amusing chapters on 'accommodation' and 'borrowing' which have + appeared within the last two months in Mr. Charles Dickens's_ + All the Year Round." + +Coffee: A Treatise on its Nature and Cultivation. With some remarks on +the management and purchase of Coffee Estates. By Arthur R. W. +Lascelles. Post 8vo. cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._ + +The Railway Freighter's Guide. Defining mutual liabilities of Carriers +and Freighters, and explaining system of rates, accounts, invoices, +checks, booking, and permits, and all other details pertaining to +traffic management, as sanctioned by Acts of Parliament, Bye-laws, and +General Usage. By J. S. Martin. 12mo. Cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._ + + +THEOLOGY. + +The Land and the Book, or Biblical Illustrations drawn from the Manners +and Customs, the Scenes and the Scenery of the Holy Land, by W. M. +Thomson, M.D., twenty-five years a Missionary in Syria and Palestine. +With 3 Maps and several hundred Illustrations. 2 vols. Post 8vo. cloth. +1_l._ 1_s._ + +Missionary Geography for the use of Teachers and Missionary Collectors. +Fcap. 8vo. with numerous maps and illustrations, 3_s._ 6_d._ + +A Topographical Picture of Ancient Jerusalem; beautifully coloured. Nine +feet by six feet, on rollers, varnished. 3_l._ 3_s._ + +Nature and the Supernatural. By Horace Bushnell, D.D. One vol. New +Edition. Post 8vo. cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._ Also by the same Author. + + Dr. Bushnell's Christian Nurture. 1_s._ 6_d._ + Dr. Bushnell's Character of Jesus. 6_d._ + Dr. Bushnell's New Life. 1_s._ 6_d._ + Dr. Bushnell's Work and Play. 2_s._ 6_d._ + +Five Years' Prayer, with the Answers: comprising recent Narratives and +Incidents in America, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, &c. By D. +Samuel Irenæus Prime. 12mo. cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._; and a Cheap Edition, +price 1_s._ Also by the same Author. + + The Power of Prayer. 12mo. cloth, 1_s._ 6_d._ + +The Light of the World: a most True Relation of a Pilgrimess travelling +towards Eternity. Divided into Three Parts; which deserve to be read, +understood, and considered by all who desire to be saved. Reprinted from +the edition of 1696. Beautifully printed by Clay on toned paper. Crown +8vo. pp. 593, bevelled boards, 10_s._ 6_d._ + +A Short Method of Prayer; an Analysis of a Work so entitled by Madame de +la Mothe-Guyon; by Thomas C. Upham, Professor of Mental and Moral +Philosophy in Bowdoin College, U.S. America. Printed by Whittingham. +12mo. cloth. 1_s._ + +Christian Believing and Living. By F. D. Huntington, D.D. Crown 8vo. +cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._ + + "For freshness of thought, power of illustration, and + evangelical earnestness, these writers [Dr. Huntington and Dr. + Bushnell] are not surpassed by the ablest theologians in the + palmiest days of the Church."--_Caledonian Mercury._ + +Life Thoughts. By the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. Two Series, complete in +one volume, well printed and well bound. 2_s._ 6_d._ Superior edition, +illustrated with ornamented borders. Sm. 4to. cloth extra. 7_s._ 6_d._ + +Dr. Beecher's Life and Correspondence: an Autobiography. Edited by his +Son. 2 vols, post 8vo. with Illustrations, price 21_s._ + + "_One of the most real, interesting, and instructive pieces of + religious biography of the present day._"--Nonconformist. + + "_We have waited for the publication of the second and last + volume of this interesting, we may well say entertaining, + biography, before introducing it to our readers. It is now + complete, and furnishes one of the most various and delightful + portraits of a fine, sturdy, old representative of antient + theology and earnest piety, relieved by very sweet and engaging + pictures of New England society in its religious circles, and + the ways and usages of the men and women who lived, and loved, + and married, and had families, nearly a century since.... And + now we must lay down these very delightful volumes. We trust we + have sufficiently characterized them, while there are, of + course, reminiscences, pictures of places and of persons, we + have been unable even to mention. It was an extraordinary + family altogether; a glow of bright, affectionate interest + suffuses all in charming sunshine. It was a life of singular + purpose, usefulness, and determination; and we think ministers + especially, and of ministers young students especially, might + read it, and read it more than once, to advantage.... Without + attempting any more words, we hope we have sufficiently + indicated our very high appreciation of, and gratitude for, + this charming and many-sided biography of a most robust and + healthy life._"--The Eclectic. + + "_All that the old man writes is clever and + sagacious._"--Athenæum. + + "_If the reader can imagine the Vicar of Wakefield in America, + this memoir will give a very good idea of what he would be + among Yankee surroundings. There is the same purity, sincerity, + and goodness of heart, the same simplicity of manners and + directness of purpose in Dr. Primrose and Dr. Beecher, though + the go-ahead society in which the latter divine lived failed + not to impress its character upon him. This is as instructive + and charming a book for family reading as can be taken up for + that purpose._"--Daily News. + + "_A hundred pleasant things we must pass by; but readers of + these charming volumes will not do so._"--Wesleyan Times. + +Life and Experience of Madame de la Mothe Guyon. By Professor Upham. +Edited by an English Clergyman. Crown 8vo. cloth, with Portrait. Third +Edition, 7_s._ 6_d._ + +_By the same Author._ + + Life of Madame Catherine Adorna; 12mo. cloth. 4_s._ 6_d._ + The Life of Faith, and Interior Life. 2 vols. 5_s._ 6_d._ each. + The Divine Union. 7_s._ 6_d._ + + +LAW AND JURISPRUDENCE. + +Wheaton's Elements of International Law; with a New Supplement to May +1863: comprising Important Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United +States of America, settling authoritatively the character of the +hostilities in which they are involved, and the legal consequences to be +deduced from them. Royal 8vo. cloth extra, 35_s._ + +History of the Law of Nations; by Henry Wheaton, LL.D. author of the +"Elements of International Law." Roy. 8vo. cloth, 31_s._ 6_d._ + +Commentaries on American Law; by Chancellor Kent. Ninth and entirely New +Edition. 4 vols. 8vo. calf. 5_l._ 5_s._; cloth, 4_l._ 10_s._ + +Treatise on the Law of Evidence; by Simon Greenleaf, LL.D. 3 vols. 8vo. +calf. 4_l._ 4_s._ + +A Treatise on the Measure of Damages; or, An Enquiry into the Principles +which govern the Amount of Compensation in Courts of Justice. By +Theodore Sedgwick. Third revised Edition, enlarged Imperial 8vo. cloth. +31_s._ 6_d._ + +Justice Story's Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. 2 +vols. 36_s._ + +Justice Story's Commentaries on the Laws, viz. Bailments--Agency--Bills +of Exchange--Promissory Notes--Partnership--and Conflict of Laws. 6 +vols. 8vo. cloth, each 28_s._ + +Justice Story's Equity Jurisprudence. 2 vols. 8vo. 63_s._; and Equity +Pleadings. 1 vol. 8vo. 31_s._ 6_d._ + +W. W. Story's Treatise on the Law of Contracts. 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