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"After emerging from the gorge at the bathhouse, the traveller may ascend the valley above it by a well-marked track; ascending the steep left bank, and then keeping to the left, and descending a little, he will in about half a mile cross by a natural bridge of rock, beneath which the Tamina, out of sight, and heaving from above, forces its way into the gorge of the hot springs. A steep path or staircase (steige), formed of trunks or roots of trees, on the right bank, is then met with, ascending which you reach an upper stage of the valley, formed of gentle slopes, and covered with verdant pasture on one side, and with thick woods on the other. The two sides are separated by the deep gash and narrow gorge along the bottom of which the Tamina forces its way. This is, perhaps, the best point for obtaining a general view of the baths, and the singular spot in which they are sunken. On looking over the verge of the precipice you perceive, at the bottom of the ravine, at the depth of 300 feet below, the roofs of the two large buildings, like cotton factories in size and structure. The upper valley, also, with its carpet of bright green, its woods, and the bare limestone cliffs which border it on either hand, and above all, the huge peak of the Falkniss, rising on the opposite side of the Rhine, form a magnificent landscape."

The traveller's attention will next be directed to the convent of Pfeffers, an edifice of considerable extent, but by no means remarkable for architectural excellence. As in all Benedictine convents, a church occupies the centre of its enceinte. The position is admirable: from its lofty mountainplatform it looks out, in one direction, on the rich. Rhine valley, backed by the lofty summit of the Falkniss; in another, it commands the lake of Wallenstadt, and the peaks of the Seven Electors (Sieben Kurfurster.)

site, and to assume for its device a flying dove with a chip in its beak.

The convent lasted for ten centuries, but its financial affairs becoming hopelessly involved, a majority of the brethren requested the government of the canton (St. Gall) to suppress it, and it was therefore abolished in 1838. The building has since been converted into a lunatic asylum.

We continue our route to Rorschach by way of Sargans; Sevelen (where, on the left, across the Rhine, lies Vaduz, capital of the miniature principality of Lichtenstein); Werdenberg, formerly the seat of a patriotic line of nobles of the same name; Sennvald, a village at the foot of the Kamor; Altstetten, a town of 7000 inhabitants, in a fertile country; S. Margarethen, near the Austrian ferry, an English-like village surrounded by groves and orchards; and Rheineck, a hamlet at the foot of vine-clad hills.

Between Rorschach and Rheineck the Rhine enters the Boden See, or Lake of Constanz. The flat delta is covered with morass, and presents no beauty to attract the traveller's eye. Rorschach (inns: Hirsch, and Post) is a quiet town, the principal station of the lake steamers, and a large corn market. The grain required for the supply of the Alpine district of North Switzerland is imported from Suabia in boats across the lake, and temporarily stored in spacious warehouses. There are several thriving muslin manufactories.

The only noteworthy buildings are the ruined keep of the castle of St. Anne, and the dilapidated palace of the abbots of St. Gall, now known as the Statthalterz.

LAKE OF CONSTANZ, OR BODEN SEE.

Steamers navigate the lake between Constanz, Schaffhausen, Ueberlingen, Meersburg, Friedrichshafen, Rorschach, Ludwigshafen, Romanshorn, Lindau, and Bregentz. The voyage from Rorschach to Constanz occupies three hours, and from Constanz to Lindau about five hours. Printed bills of fares, hours, and places of starting will be found at all the principal inns in the abovenamed towns.

The foundation of the convent dates from 713, when its erection was commenced by S. Pirminius, bishop of Meaux, on the left bank of the Landguart. While felling timber for the building a carpenter accidentally wounded himself. Some drops of blood fell on a chip, which was straitly picked up by a white dove, and carried across the The Lake of Constanz, called by the Germans Rhine to the forest on the opposite heights. On Boden See, and known to the Romans under the seeing the dove let fall the chip from the top of a name Lacus Brigantinus (from Brigantia, the larch tree, S. Pirminius exclaimed, "There the modern Bregentz), is bounded by the territories of Lord wills that his house should be built." And five different states, Baden, Wurtemberg, Switzerthus the convent came to be raised on its present | land, Bavaria, and Austria. A portion of its

shores belong to each state. Its elevation above the sea is estimated at 1385 feet. Its length is about forty-four miles from Bregentz to Constanz, and thirty miles from Bregentz to Friedrichshafen. Its maximum width is nine miles; its maximum depth, 964 feet. It is full of fish, and as many as twenty-five species have been distinguished. Locally it is divided into four sections: the Lake of Bregentz, the Lake of Constanz, the Lake of Ueberlingen, and the Lower Lake. Its waters are clear, of a greenish tint, and an agreeable flavour. Their surface is never smooth; a ripple is always upon it, even when no breath of air is felt in the "blue serene;" this constant agitation is probably due to some under-currents.

Its main tributary is the Rhine, which enters at its eastern extremity; but it also receives upwards of fifty brooks and torrents. It is frequently visited by storms, when its billows roll with crested heads, like those of a tempest-stricken sea. Though its shores present no very attractive panorama of scenery, they are exuberantly fertile; and on the south the landscape assumes a certain picturesqueness of character from the numerous ruined forts which crown each conspicuous height.

On an average the waters of the lake are lowest in February, and highest in June and July, when the snows, melting on the distant mountains, swell every brook and torrent which flows into its basin. The lower section of the lake is generally frozen every winter, but only a small part of the upper is ever "bound in chains of ice." The Swiss chroniclers, however, record several occasions when, if they may be credited, nearly the whole of the lake was frozen; as in 1277, 1435, 1560, 1573, 1587, 1695, 1785, 1788, and 1830. But the entire surface was not iced over in the three last-named years; navigation was still possible in the centre.

The following tradition is connected with the freezing of the lake in the sixteenth century (1587):

During the winter, which was one of extraordinary severity, a horseman, bent on visiting the lake, descended from the rugged mountains and rode forth into the deep snowy plains. Wherever he gazed, the hard whiteness met his eye; not a tree, not a house, relieved the monotony before him. For leagues he pressed forward his weary horse, hearing no sounds but the screams of the wild water-fowl, or the shrieks of the wind across

the echoing waste. At length, as the darkness of night spread over the sky, he descried in the distance the faint glimmer of a taper; trees sprang out of the low creeping mist; the welcome sound of dogs broke on his ear; and the wanderer stopped his horse before a farm-house. He saw a fair maiden at the window, and courteously inquired how far it might yet be to the lake.

"The lake is behind you," she answered in exceeding surprise.

"Nay, not so, for I have just ridden across yonder plain."

"Mary, Mary, save us! You have ridden across. the lake, and the ice has not yielded under you!”

The villagers had by this time gathered round the stranger horseman, and uttering loud exclamations of surprise and wonder, they bade him be thankful for the great mercy Heaven had vouchsafed him. But they spoke to ears that could not hear. When he realized the full extent of the peril he had so narrowly escaped, both brain and heart gave way, and he fell from his horse lifeless.

CIRCUIT OF THE LAKE.

We now propose to notice briefly the interesting points on either shore of the Boden See.

On the west, two leagues from Rorschach, lies the ancient town of Arbon (the Arbor Felix of the Romans), a quiet little settlement of some 750 inhabitants. The Romans built a fort here, which, in the fifth century, they were compelled to abandon to the Allemanni. On its site, in 1510, were reared the present castle (except the tower, which is three or four centuries older) and the church, which dates from the same epoch. Its belfry is detached, and boarded, not walled, on the side nearest the castle, in order that no besiegers might be able to use it as a point of vantage.

From Arbon to Constanz the south shore of the lake is occupied by the canton of Thurgovia, one of the most fruitful districts in Switzerland. Gardens, orchards, and villages remind the traveller of some of the midland scenery of England.

Following the sweep of a noble bay for eight or nine miles we arrive at Romanshorn or Romishorn, which clusters somewhat irregularly on the low peninsula forming the northern boundary of the bay. The peninsula curves like a horn; hence the name of the village, which is populous and thriving, and stands in a land of vines. A fine

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