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are many upon these mountains. After resting an hour, and taking some refreshment, we recommenced our ascent, and, after toiling and panting half an hour longer, reached what is called the back of the Riesenbirge; that is, the summit of the whole range, though single rocks and hills upon them rise yet much higher. On this back we found a boundary stone between Bohemia and Silesia; for the limits between the two provinces run all along upon this summit. We had, however, another half hour's walk, chiefly ascending, though less steep than before, when instantly a precipice, nearly fifteen hundred feet deep, opened his ghastly jaws before us; a sort of isthmus, or tongue of land, however, allowed us to proceed about one hundred rods farther, until we could fix ourselves against the side of a rock, and look over into the tremendous depth. We had then the precipice on both sides of us, and it passes by the respective names of the Great and the

heated with fire all the year round. There is a wide bench that goes all round the room, on which they sleep, for they have no beds, or, at most, one for the master and mistress of the house; and if the strangers who pass the night there require soft beds, they must content themselves, as well as they can, with sweet hay, for straw is a luxury unknown to them. As they have not this article for their cows to lie down upon, they keep their stables uncommonly clean, and generally make one of the streams, which are so abundant upon those mountains, run through them and through the dairy. By the community of the roof between the family and all the other cattle, much filthiness arises. Their persons are also very dirty, and the houses are full of children, clad in no other garb than a coarse shirt; often times stark-naked, and loaded with vermin like the land of Egypt at the last of its plagues.

Small Snow Pit. They are so called, because generally the snow at the bottom remains unmelted the whole year round; although this has not been the case for the last two summers, and, at present, they contain no snow at all. We were now elevated more than four thousand feet above the level of the sea. Beyond the jaws of the precipice, somewhat higher than ourselves; was the summit of a mountain called the Great Wheel, or the Great Storm Cap. Just beneath our feet was the dreadful precipice, at the bottom of which lofty pines*, slanting downwards upon the still descending mountain, scarcely appeared to our eyes of the height of a lady's needle, while, beyond the foot of the mountains, our eyes ranged to almost an immeasurable distance, over hills and dales, corn fields and pastures, cities and villages, until they were lost in the grey vapours that bordered the far-extended horizon. The weather, which is here almost always cold, even when

* There are two remarkable changes in the face of the country as you ascend the Giant Mountains. From their bottom, about half way up, the ground is covered with tall, majestic trees, which gradually dwindle in size and height, until in the middle region they can no longer be called trees, but shrink to a shrub of an extraordinary kind, which is commonly called dwarf pine; it goes here by the name of knee-wood, in allusion to the height which it seldom exceeds. The stem is sometimes about the size of a man's leg, and it spreads round its branches, something in the shape of a large lustre, so as to be at least sixty feet in circumference. This bush grows up as high as what is called the Ramm, or back of the whole range of mountains. The region above this consists entirely of the naked rock, without a trace of any kind of vegetation.

the regions below are melting with heat, was so unusually mild, that we had no occasion to take our cloaks, while we sat about an hour, and enjoyed the prospects around us. At the Snow Pits, as at the Falls, there is every appearance as if the immense masses of granite, of which these mountains consist, had been split and shivered by some great natural convulsion. The basaltic rocks, which rise in irregular pyramidical shafts from the bottom of the pits, to the height of four or five hundred feet, furnish materials for the controversy between the naturalist philosophers, whether it is a marine or volcanic production.

To visit the source of the Elbe and the Fall, it required about a mile of descent on the Bohemian side. As there was no path leading towards it, and part of the way was not only very steep, but between low bushes and shrubs, in which the feet might easily get entangled, this was the most disagreeable part of this day's journey. The fall of the Elbe is higher than either of those on the Silesian side, being of about two hundred and fifty feet; but has the same disadvantage of extremely penurious waters; a disadvantage, which though much less in the spring of the year than at present, must always be considerable, owing to the proximity of the falls to the sources of their streams.

In

returning from this fall, we saw two or three of the eleven springs, from which, according to some of the German writers, the Elbe derives its name, as well as its waters..

that upon this

It is a remarkable circumstance, mountain, and certainly within three or four English miles of each other, are the sources of the Elbe and the

Oder, two of the largest rivers of Germany. The sources of both are numerous; for, instead of eleven springs, which some of the German geographers would assign to the Elbe, there are probably here above fifty which pay their tribute to it; and the springs which finally send their streams to the Oder on the Silesian side, are equally numerous. It is one of the pleasing peculiarities which first meet the traveller's attention here, that he can scarcely walk ten minutes in any di rection without meeting some rippling current, so cool and clear, that the mere sight or hearing of it, as it steals along, is enough to refresh his thirst and relieve his fatigue. But whence all these waters so near the very summit of the mountains? It seems that the mere rain which falls upon their top cannot be suffi cient to feed the mighty rivers which there originate. We leave to the philosophers to answer that question.

Between two and three in the afternoon we returned to the Silesian baude, where we stopped, to dine upon the provisions we had carried with us, and upon what we could get there. They could only supply us with brown bread, milk, and butter, for which, however, they made us pay the double of what the same articles would have cost us in any of the Silesian cities. - I mention this, because these mountaineers have been represented, in the books of travellers hither, as the most perfect models of patriarchal virtue, happiness, and simplicity: every thing we have seen of them has tended to give us ideas of them directly the reverse of ́these.

....

Aug.3d, Sunday.-Before eight o'clock we were in the cart, and rode, in a couple of hours, to Seydorf, a village at the foot of the Schnekoppe, or, more properly, the Reisenkoppe, the Giant's Head, the loftiest of all these mountains, and the highest point of land in Germany. The weather being extremely warm, we stopped at this village during the heat of the day. At four in the afternoon we seated ourselves again in the cart, and, for three hours rode up-hill, as steep as any carriage could go; we then came to the Schilingel's baude, so called from the name of the person who keeps it. Here we left the cart until our return; and pursued our ascending route about an hour more, when we reached the Hempel's baude, otherwise called the Samuel's baude, from the name of its present and its former proprietor. This is the house at which almost all the visiters of the Giant's Head, from the Silesian side, pass the night before they go up: it has served for that purpose these hundred and thirty years; but though, during the season of visiting the mountain*, it is always full of strangers, its accommodations are very little better than those of its other namesakes. Just below it is another hut, called the Clerical baude, because it serves for the entertainment of priests and other religious persons, who, on five stated days in the year, are employed to say mass in the chapel at the top of the mountain. From this baude, as we passed by it, a chubby boy of eight

There are but three months in the year, viz. July, August, September, when the mountains can, with any comfort, be ascended; and at least three quarters of that time they are veiled in clouds, and obstinately deny the view of all their most striking beauties.

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