The road from Gerolstein to Kirchweiler, 3 miles), passes the Casselburg, a picturesque stronghold, surmounting a mass of basaltic rock. Dochweiler, 3 miles farther, is a village built of lava. Near it to the north-west is a large basin-shaped crater called Dreiser Weiher, which, though now a meadow, was evidently at a former period filled with water, and is still remarkable for its numerous mineral springs. Dreis, in the language of the Eifel, means a mineral spring. Olivine, a comparatively rare mineral, is found at the south side of the crater, sometimes in masses 18 inches in diameter, and augite is also met with. Glassy felspar is found at Hohenfels near this. Some of the highest hills in the Eifel surround the Dreiser Weiher.

Five miles from Dochweiler lies Daun; where Hölzer's inn is good. The castle was the family residence and the birth-place of the Marshal who led the Austrian armies in the VII.

years' war. On the summit of a steep acclivity near this, lie 3 crater lakes, separated from each other by a narrow partition of slaty rock. The principal one, the Gmunden Maar, is very beautiful. From Daun, a detour should be made by Stadfeld to Manderscheid, in order to see its old castle and the Meerfelder Maar, another considerable crater lake in a perfectly circular basin, 100 fathoms deep; the water does not occupy the whole of it. Close to it rises the hill of Mosenberg, remarkable for its four volcanic cones of slag; three of them are perfect, one is broken down on the south; from one of them a current of basaltic lava descends into the valley.

Gillenfeld, (Burgomaster Zilchen's Inn,) on the road to Lützerath, passing Hedersdorf, is the next point of interest. Here is situated the Pulvermaar, one of the largest and most beautiful crater lakes of the Eifel, 330 feet deep. On the way form Gillenfeld to Lützerath is the

village of Strötzbusch, built in the hollow of a crater lake, and near it there are remains of another crater, formerly perhaps a lake.

Lützerath is distant from Daun, by the direct road, about 12 English miles. We have now entered upon Route XLI.

ROUTE XLV.

BINGEN TO TREVES.

=

16 Pruss. miles 76 Eng. miles. This is a hilly road recently macadamized; the traffic along it is inconsiderable, and post-horses are rather scarce. It is traversed 4 times a week by a Fahrpost, which sets out from the post-house on the (1.) bank of the Nahe, close to Bingen bridge. In consequence of delays to be expected at post-houses, the journey will scarcely take up less than 16 or 18 hours. 11 Stromberg. 3 Simmern.

We follow the line of the old Roman road as far as Kirchberg.

23 Buchenbeurn. From this to Berncastel the road is very hilly, running over the high table-land of the Hundsruck (Dog's Back) hills. For a considerable distance neither house nor human being is to be seen. The country is a bleak uncultivated waste of moor and moss, with forest interspersed. Here and there a distant view over hills and valleys appears. We again follow the line of the old Roman road, called in the country Steinstrasse. By the side of it is seen a small truncated tower (Stumpfe Thurm), probably a Roman work. It is supposed indeed that the Roman station Belginum, or Tabernæ, may have stood upon this spot. A little farther on, the road descends through a narrow and winding ravine, whose sides, formed of ragged slate rocks, are exceedingly picturesque, in many places overhanging the road, and sprinkled over with trees and underwood. Considerable mines have

greater part of that day to look about him there, and he may set out for Berlin by the Schnell post in the evening, and breakfast there on Wednesday morning, i. e. in four days from London.

About 25 miles from the mouth of the Elbe lies the island of Heligoland (Holyland), so named from the Temple of Hertha (Earth), the goddess worshipped by the ancient Saxons, which stood on it. It was ceded to Great Britain in 1807, and some

Its

fortifications are raised on it. population amounts to 3000. At the time when Napoleon had excluded England from the continent, it was important as a war-station; and from its situation near the mouths of the rivers Elbe and Weser, it then became a considerable smuggling depôt. Its male inhabitants are chiefly fishermen, sailors, and pilots. The sea is fast consuming its shores; and, in the course of time, will in all probability leave nothing behind but a sandbank it is now about two miles in circumference, but is diminishing daily.

:

(1.) At the mouth of the Elbe stand the lighthouse and town of Cuxhaven, on a small angle of territory belonging to Hamburg. Vessels lie at anchor off this place waiting for favourable winds. It is a watering-place frequented by the inhabitants of Hamburg for sea-bathing. Beyond Cuxhaven, the left bank of the Elbe belongs to Hanover; it is for the most part flat and uninteresting. The only towns on this side are Stade, an unimportant place, and Haarburg, opposite Hamburg.

The land on the (rt.) bank is the territory of the Duchy of Holstein, belonging to Denmark; it rises in gentle slopes, covered, for some distance below Hamburg, with wood, interspersed with handsome villas and gardens belonging to opulent merchants. On

this side lies the small town of Glückstadt, capital of Holstein, with 6000 inhabitants. Higher up the little fishing village of Blankenese, with its houses scattered along the slope and among the trees one above another, is passed; and above it, the town of (rt.) ALTONA, which joins Hamburg, and from the river seems to form a part of it, though within the Danish territory. It has risen to great mercantile prosperity, perhaps to the prejudice of its neighbour, so that the Hamburgers say that its name agrees with its situation, as it is All-zu-nah (All too near). It is the most commercial and populous town in Denmark next to

Copenhagen, having 27,000 inhabit

ants.

Passengers arriving by water at Hamburg are compelled to disembark in boats but the Senate has at last voted a large sum of money for the construction of a Quai along the Elbe, and for deepening the harbour, so as to allow steam-boats to lie alongside, and embark and disembark their passengers at once.

(rt.) HAMBURG. - Inns: Hôtel de Russie, best; Alte Stadt London, on the Jungferstieg, is comfortable, and has a table d'hôte ; Belvedere ; Hôtel de Petersbourg.

Hamburg is situated at a distance of about 80 miles from the mouth of the Elbe, at the junction of a small stream called the Alster with the Elbe. Being a Free Town, the duties levied are so small, that travellers are not bothered with any Custom-house examination on landing; but passports are usually demanded, and the traveller's name and profession are entered at the Baumhaus, near the port. Its population is reckoned at 121,000. There are about 6000 Jews, who, to the disgrace of this free town, are treated with the utmost illiberality, almost as a Pariah caste, being interdicted by law not only from enjoying the rights of citizens, but even from practising any handicraft trade.

Money accounts are kept in marks and schillings; there are 16 schillings in a mark. The marc banco and rix dollar banco are imaginary coins. The mark banco is to the current mark as 16 to 13. rent coins are,

The cur

till 12, is demanded from all who pass. Down to the year 1836 neither ingress or egress was allowed to any one after midnight; but this inconvenient regulation is now removed, and persons may pass and repass all through the night, upon payment of one mark each. All eatables brought into the town are taxed at the gates, and even private carriages are sometimes searched, and game found in them has been seized.

The executive government of the town is vested in a council or senate, composed of burgomasters, lawyers, and merchants, elected for life. The person chosen must accept the office, or quit the city, at the same time forfeiting one-tenth of his property. The members wear a quaint garb, a black velvet cloak, and high crowned hat The legislative power is placed in the hands of three Colleges selected from the general body of citizens.

Hamburg is one of the three remaining Hanse towns, and is chiefly remarkable as the first trading seaport of Germany. It is intersected by canals, called Fleeten, and in this respect, in the antiquated appearance of its houses, and in the number of trees growing in its streets, bears a resemblance to the towns of Holland. Nearly 2000 vessels clear out of the port annually: the Elbe is navigable thus far for ships of considerable burthen, which can enter the harbour and transmit their cargoes in barges to the merchants' doors. Their warehouses and dwellings are generally under one roof. Much banking and funded business is done here, and the town possesses considerable sugar refineries: besides which it is the depôt for a large part of the exports and imports of the N. of Europe.

The traveller must not expect fine buildings, or valuable collections here; use, and not ornament, has been the guiding principle in the construction of public as well as private buildings. The objects chiefly calculated to attract a stranger's attention are, first,

the costumes seen in the streets of Hamburg; they are not a little singular. Servant girls, housemaids, and cooks, according to the custom of the place, rarely appear in public except in the gayest attire; with lace caps, long kid gloves, and a splendid shawl. The last article is elegantly arranged under the arm, so as to conceal a basket shaped like a child's coffin, containing dirty clothes, butter or cheese, or other articles purchased at market, as the case may be. The peasants who frequent the market wear a very picturesque attire; they are chiefly natives of a part of the Hamburg territory bordering on the Elbe, called Vierland, which is principally laid out in gardens, and supplies the market with vegetables.

Funeral processions in Hamburg are not composed of friends of the deceased, but of hired mourners, called Reiten Diener, dressed in black, with plaited ruffs round their necks, curled and powdered wigs, short Spanish cloaks, and swords. The same per

sons, whose number is limited to sixteen, attend at marriage festivals, and form also a sort of body-guard to the magistrates. Their situations were formerly purchased at a high price, in consideration of the perquisites and fees attached to them. Upon the death of a burgomaster or other personage of importance in the town, the town trumpeter, a civic officer, is set to blow a dirge from one of the steeples.

A large portion of the poorer inhabitants live in cellars under the houses. In winter, and after a prevalence of west winds, which drive the waters of the German Ocean into the mouth of the Elbe, the tides rise to a great height (sometimes even exceeding 20 feet), inundating all the streets near the river. The tenants of these cellars are then driven from their habitations by the water, which keeps possession of them for days, leaving them filled with ooze, and in a most unhealthy condition from the mois

ture.

A humane law compels those