"^HE Danube :l THE BLACK FOREST TO THE BLACK SEA CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM Mr. and Mrs.Wm.I .E.'jurley Cornell University Library D 919.M65 Danube from the Black forest to the Blac 3 1924 028 085 177 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028085177 jiU^.j-11 Cl>l— £«%_^ 7.^,JCcM^ J2 ■-^S^-^.n^, THE DANUBE FROM THE BLACK FOREST TO THE BLACK SEA BY F. D. MILLET AUTHOR OF "A CAPILLARY CRIME" ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR AND ALFRED PARSONS NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1893 Dc itfiSgaT^ Har/ek Copyright, iSga, Hy Harper & Brothers. All rights reserved. "Wenn ich dann ^u Nacht alleine Dichtend in die Wellen schau' , Steigt beim blanhen Mondenscheine Auf die schmucke Wasserfrau Aus der Donau Aus der schonen, blauen Donau." -Beck. CONTENTS CHAPTER I ♦ The Black Forest — The Brigach and the Brege — The Highest Sources of the Danube — Journey thence from London — Villingen — Arrival at Donaueschingen — The Canoes and Outfit — Arbitrary Source of the Danube Page i CHAPTER II The Start — Swans and Spectators — The First Weir and First Luncheon — Society for the Preservation of the Banks of the Danube — Tuttlin- gen and Max Schneckenburger — First Public Performance at a Weir — First Night in Camp and a Spoiled Breakfast — Monastery of Beu- ron and its Monks — Crags and Castles . . .... 15 CHAPTER III Sigmaringen and HohenzoUern — Nuns at Riedlingen — Haymakers and Haymaking — The Last Weir — A Vigorous Current — The Confluence of the Iller and the Danube — Ulm and the Danube Rowing Club — Start from Ulm — Appointment of Camp-finder 32 CHAPTER IV Lauingen ; Its Architecture and its People — Blenheim and Hochstadt — Donauworth — Lumber-rafts and our Narrow Escape — Virtuous Vohburg — Roman Remains and one of the Scenes in the ' ' Niebelun- genlied" — Weltenburg Abbey — The Befreiungshalle and Kelheim — In Sight of Ratisbon .... 46 CHAPTER V Ratisbon ; Its Architecture and its People— The Walhalla— The Plain of Straubing— A Summer Squall— A Typical Bavarian Farm-house — Visit to a Local Freight Flat-boat— Rowing Clubs at Deggendorf and at Winzer Page 59 CHAPTER VI .Fourth of July at Passau— The Austrian Frontier— Through the Gorge in Rainy Weather— A Curious Ferry— A Brief Halt at Linz and a Camp at the Mouth of the Traun — Shooting the Rapids below Grein — Melk and the Pass below 74 CHAPTER VII Durrenstein, the Dungeon of Richard Cceur de Lion — Ruins and Senti- ment — A Gem of River Scenery — Canalization of the River — The only " Blue Danube " — TuUn and its Antiquities — Active River Com- merce — Our Raftsmen Friends 88 CHAPTER VIII Vienna ; Its History and Characteristics — The Lia Rowing Club — Our Stay at Hainburg and Excursions in the Neighborhood — Theben, the Frontier Town of Hungary — A Model Postmaster . . . I02 CHAPTER IX Pressburg and the River below — Monotony of Landscape and our In- troduction to Dust and Mud^-Gran ; Its Situation and Attractions — Visegrad — Our Hospitable Reception — General Gorgei — Our Re- luctant Parting — Approach to Budapest — The First Accident to the Fleet — The Neptune Club — Gypsy Music ■ 119 CHAPTER X Budapest almost our Capua — The Bridges and Baths — The Great Hun- garian Plain — Cheery River Folk — Duna Foldvar — A Surprise Pic- nic and a Severe Storm — In the Heart of Hungary — Mohacs and a Veteran of Two Wars — Tokay and Patriotic Sentiments . . . 133 CHAPTER XI The Franzens Canal between the Danube and the Theiss — A Hetero- geneous Population-^Monostorszeg and a Peasants' Dance — Curious Types and Costumes — A Spectacular Sunday — First Signs of Ori- ental Life . Page 151 CHAPTER XII A Watermelon Metropolis — Our Fleet taken for Torpedo-boats — A Gypsy Queen — Peterwardein and Carlowitz — Busy Life on the Banks — In Sight of Belgrade — Evening in Camp — The Servian Frontier — Semlin and Belgrade — Oriental Characteristics and Modern Improve- ments — A Sculptor's Paradise — An Unexpected Encounter . . 164 CHAPTER XIII Semendria and its Great Castle — Our Passports are Useless — Bazias and the Entrance to the Carpathians — The Emperor's Birthday on a Gunboat — tCastle of Goluba^ — Drenkova and the First Rapids — Es- cape from a Whirlpool and a Dash through the Cataracts . 184 CHAPTER XIV Improvements to Navigation — Rapids of the Jur — The Kasan Defile — Remarkable River Scenery — Trajan's Tablet and Old Roman Road- way — Orsova and the Herkulesbad — Ada Kaleh, the Turkish Settle- ment — The Iron Gates — The Danube and the Ister — Origin of the Name of the Danube — We Lose our Admiral — The Iron Gates — Captured by Roumanian Soldiers — Under Military Supervision. 197 CHAPTER XV We are Arrested in a Servian Militia Camp — Barbaric Soldiery and Strange People — We Surrender to a Roumanian Picket — A Char- acteristic Servian Village — The Frontier of Bulgaria . . . .211 CHAPTER XVI Kalafat and Widdin — A Gale out of a Clear Sky — Bulgarian Fisher- men — Widdin and its People — Quaint Turkish Sailing Craft — The River Landscape and the Bulgarian Villages — Custom-house Annoy- ances — Our Passports save us 230 CHAPTER XVII A Grazing Country — Wild-fowl in Abundance — Nicopolis and the First Reminder of the War of 1S77-78— Exodus of Turks at Sistova— Trip to Pldvna— Echoes of the War— Rustchuk and Silistria— Monotony and Mud Page 247 i CHAPTER XVIII Squally Weather and Head-winds — The Dobrudscha — Trajan's Great Wall^Our Camp is Besieged, but Peace is soon Declared — A Rou- manian Village — Braila and Galatz — A Tribe of Gypsies . . . 267 CHAPTER XIX The Danube Delta — The European Commission and its Work — Sulina, a Town on English Soil — We Enter the Territory of the Czar — The River divides and the Delta begins 280 CHAPTER XX We Fraternize with Russian Soldiers — A Night at a Picket Station^ Custom-house Formalities at Ismail — We Encounter the Police — A Desolate Land — We Camp in the Mud — Kilia — Moldavian Peasants and Russian Pickets . . 295 CHAPTER XXI We reach Vilkoff and Renew our Struggles with the Custom-house — A Remote Town — The Sturgeon Fishery and Caviar — We Push on to the Black Sea — A Gale is Blowing, and We make a Landing with Difficulty— The Roumanian "Cordon" — A Paddle in the Black Sea— We dismantle our Canoes and reach Sulina 312 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Alfred Parsons, Poultney Bige- low. and Y.D. Millet. FroKiisJ/iece Peasant Girl of the Black Forest 2 A Haymaker 3 Donaueschingen Girls 5 The Sketch-book 7 Black Forest Cow Team 10 Spectators 13 The Start — Donaueschingen. . . 17 Pforen 20 Hut for Duck Shooting — Nei- dingen 22 Max Schneckenburger, Author of " Die Wacht am Rhein". 23 Below Miihlheim, Kallenberg. . 25 Wernwag 28 Wildenstein 29 The Monks of Beuron 30 Sigmaringen 33 HohenzoUern 34 Nuns at Riedlingen 35 Crossing the Weir — Rottenack- er 37 Peasant Girls Mowing 39 Bridge at Rottenacker 40 Wood-sawyer at Ulm 43 From Strasburg to Ulm 44 The Bell Tower — Lauingen ... 48 PAGE Donauworth 49 The Ferry 51 From Ulm to Straubing 53 Between Weltenburg and Kel- heim 54 An Early Visitor 55 Ratisbon from the Bridge. ... 61 Returning from Market, Ratis- bon 64 Oberau, near Straubing 65 Local Freight Flat-boat 69 On the Tile-boat 71 From Straubing to Diirrenstein 75 Grein, from the Camp, July 6, 1891 77 Pump at Pochlarn 81 The Benedictine Monastery, Melk 85 Early Morning Opposite Diir- renstein 89 Diirrenstein 93 From Diirrenstein to Buda- pest 96 Lumber Raft 98 A Little Girl of Hainburg. . . 103 Peasant Wagon, Hainburg. . . 105 A Hungarian Ferry 107 The Wienerthor, Hainburg. . . 108 The Town Wall, Hainburg. . . Hundsheim Gossips, Hundsheim The Watch-tower, Theben. . . Peasant Girl, Theben Hungarian Cattle Gran (Esztergom) Visegrad Swineherd A Family Wash An Ark-boat Country Market -boat, Buda- pest Washer-women Duna Foldvar. Water-carriers, Duna Foldvar Fishing-station Peasant Girls at Mohacs From Budapest to Belgrade. . Schokacz Types. In Sunday Dress, Monostor- szeg Hungarian Girls at Bezdin . . . Erdod Current Mills Vukovar Watermelons A Pig- wallow A Gypsy Girl Threshing Wheat A Croatian Bivouac O Szlankamen Servian Women Fortress at the Junction of the Danube and the Save — Bel- grade Bulgarian Bozaji, Belgrade. . . Fountain in the Square, Bel- grade Semendria PAGE PAGE no Rama i8g 113 Golubaf 191 116 Roumanian Peasant Girl 194 117 The Kasan Defile 199 120 Remains of Trajan's Road 121 near Orsova 202 123 From Belgrade to Rustchuk. . 204 126 Remains of Trajan's Bridge, 127 Tumu Severin 207 130 Roumanian Peasants 209 131 Servian Fishing-canoes 210 Carrying Water for the Camp 134 — Brza Palanka 213 137 " Our Guard, " Servian Militia 139 Camp 215 142 Massing of Servian Troops on 143 the Bulgarian Frontier 217 147 Drawing Water for the Camp, 152 Brza Palanka 219 154 Servian Militia, Brza Palanka. 223 Building a House in Servia. . . 225 157 House at Radujeva9 226 159 Roumanian Picket Guard. . . . 227 160 Bulgarian Fisherman Basket- 162 making 232 166 Cann, opposite Kalafat 235 167 Bulgarian Peasant Types 237 171 Turkish Types 239 173 Turkish Quarter, Widdin. . . . 241 175 Turkish Vessels 243 176 Bulgarian Village 24s 177 Becalmed 247 On the Bulgarian Shore, near Rahova 249 178 Turkish Flat-boat 252 iBo Turkish Women at Sistova .. . 253 Old Mosque, Rustchuk 257 182 Bulgarian Buffalo Cart 259 185 Market-place, Silistria 261 PAGE Mosque in Silistria 264 From Rustchuk to Sulina. . . . 265 Roumanian Peasants Selling Flowers and Fruit 268 Hirsova 270 Gura Ghirlitza 272 Loading Grain at Braila 274 Gipsy Camp at Galatz 277 Galatz 281 Peasants of the Delta 284 Dredging the Delta 287 Turkish Sailing Lotka, Suli- na .' 288 Hills near Matchin 289 PAGE Kilia 2go Chatal Saint George 2gi Toultcha 293 Windmills of Toultcha 294 Russian Picket Post 297 Fishing-hut among the Reeds 303 A Late Camp 307 Moldavian Peasants : A Windy Day in the Delta 309 Vilkoff 313 Fishing Station on the Black Sea 315 Roumanian Sailors at the "Cordon" 319 THE DANUBE FROM THE BLACK FOREST TO THE BLACK SEA CHAPTER I T the head of a pleasant little valley high up among the bristling mountain - tops of the Black Forest, a tiny stream of clear water L* comes tumbling down the rocks, and, gathering strength and volume from an occasional spring or a riv- ulet, cuts a deep channel into the rich soil of the hay- fields, and dances along gayly over its bed of glistening pebbles. To the north, west, and south the bold summits of the water-shed, heavily clothed in dark masses of conifer- ous trees, make a rugged, strongly accentuated sky line, and to the east delightful vistas of 5unny slopes and fertile inter- vales stretch away in enchanting perspective to the hazy distance. This little stream, the Brigach, with its twin sis- ter, the Brege, which rises about ten miles farther to the south, are the highest sources of the mighty River Danube, the great water highway of Europe since earliest history, celebrated for ages in legend and song, gathering on its banks in its course of nearly two thousand miles to the Black Sea the most varied and interesting nationalities in the civilized world, and unfolding in its flow the most re- markable succession of panoramas of natural beauty known to the geographer. The Black Forest Railway, which crosses the mountains from the valley of the Rhine into the upper valley of the Danube by the way of Triberg, mounts the western escarpment of the range by a series of steep grades, curves, and short tunnels, in the midst of beautiful scenery of a semi-Alpine character, and, after the divide is reached, follows the course of the Brigach to Donaueschingen, a tidy little town in the Grand Duchy of Baden, usually called the source of the Danube, and, for the greater part of the year, the head of navigation for small boats on the upper river. A mile and a half below Donaueschingen the Brigach and the Brege join, and the stream here receives the name of the Dan- ube. Our party of three was made up of ideal ele- ments. The ac- curacy of this statement must be permitted for a moment to eclipse the habit- ual modesty of that member of ' y-^ J4.j2ai PEASANT GIRL OF THE BLACK FOREST the expedition whose duty it has become to tell the story of the trip. The originator of the enterprise was an expert canoist who had steered his frail craft through breakers of various seas and over shoals of countless rivers. On him was to devolve the literary part of the expedition — an arrangement which would have been carried out but for the ruthless interference of that all-powerful tyrant, Time. The other two members of the alliance expected to take elaborate notes of all at- tractive features of the landscape and all interesting types of humanity, the one meanwhile joyfully anticipating the pursuit of his favorite study of botany, and the other indulg- ing in the exhilarating" prospect of explorations in the fas- cinating field of philology, and looking forward with no little interest to revisiting nnder the pleasantest of auspices old friends and familiar scenes. \\'e agreed to meet at Donau- eschingen on June 22d. and made all our arrangements to have the canoes reach that point on or previous to that date. The experienre of old travellers with canoes was all against the successful consummation of this plan, particularly as two of the boats had to be shipped from New York, and would not be finished until the 3d of the month. The fate of the other canoe was more or less certain, for the owner decided to watch it himself all the way from London to the place of meeting, having learned after many disap- pointments that this process of transportation, although irk- some, was the onlv one he could depend upon. On the evening of Saturday. June 20th. two of us left London in the wake of die Admiral of the fleet, who had pad- dled his canoe down the Thames to the Flushing boat some days before. 'J'hirty- six hours later, on the morn- ing of the 22d. refreshed and cheered by the brisk air of the mountains after two feverish nights on the journey, we saw between the showers of rain the brilliant sunlight sparkling on a tiny mountain brook near the lit- tle hamlet of Sonimerau. on the eastern slope of the water- shed. Although we had no A HAYMAKER map or guide-book, we knew at once that our acquaintance with the Danube had begun. The long-dormant sporting corpuscles in our blood took on a sudden and stimulating activity, and we were in a nervous quiver to begin our long- dreamed-of cruise. The Rhine had failed to charm us with its majestic scenery ; we had seen only the hideous scars that modern man has made on the, fair face of nature there, with villas of carpenter's Gothic and summer hotels of repulsive- ly mammoth proportions. Cologne, Mayence, Strasburg, which, under ordinary circumstances, would have been joys to us, had been on this journey aggravating impediments in the way of our progress,' for all the trains had seemed to com- bine viciously, to break connections at these points and to force us to (delay our eager flight. The charms of architecture and art, although always potent, had been but a meagre con- solation to us in our impatience to .begin our intimate com- munion with Nature. Even the wonderful railway journey over the pass, while it had put us in a better mood and tem- porarily stirred our emotions, had not given us a tithe of the sensation that the sparkle of the rivulet caused as we caught sight of it after a great gray curtain of rain had been driven away by an all-powerful flood of sunlight. The quaintest and strangest of costumes met our eyes as we leaned out of the window of our compartment when the train stopped at the station of St. Georgen, eager to see how the brook had widened there. The hurrying peasant women, in queer skull-caps with immense ribbon bows, stiff bodices, and short petticoats, seemed to be the supernumeraries in the prologue of an exciting drama now about to begin. The train rolled slowly on with that peculiar settling- down motion that denotes a descending grade, and we watched the yard-wide brook gradually expand its channel and assume the proportions of a goodly stream. In the fertile valley near Villingen, where the country opens out DONAUESCHINGEN GIRLS and the landscape becomes more extensive, the stream was now fully a half-dozen )'ards wide, and the recent heavy rains had filled it nearly to overflowing with a yellow flood. We had a sudden and strong temptation to stop and begin our cruise at this point, but the uncertainty of the fate of our canoes, of which we had received no item of informa- tion since they had been shipped at New York, made it im- perative for us to push on to Donaueschingen, and our am- bition to make the highest start on record in the Danube annals was forever crushed by the considerations of trans- portation. Donaueschingen was still dripping from a heavy shower when we arrived about noon-time, but the eloquent- ly beaming face of our companion would have dispelled the gloom of the heaviest thunder-storm, and we heeded not the weather, for we understood at once that the canoes had ar- rived and were all right. Indeed, contrary to all precedent and all prophecy, they had turned up safe and sound the day before; and when we saw them for the first time, all sleek and shiny and dainty, resting on the flag-stones of the inn-yard s as lightly as bubbles on a pool of water, we felt that kind and quality of elation that had been a stranger to us since the first happy day of school vacation. Graceful as violins, with sails whiter than the fresh whitewash of the tidy hostlery, with shining nickel fittings and every detail highly finished, they combined in their construction beauty and strength in a near approach to perfection. Under the very wall of the inn-yard the Brigach, now quite a river and much swollen by the floods, rushed and foamed and filled the air with an inviting murmur. Do- naueschingen has long been the starting-point for boating expeditions to Vienna, but, as we rightly conjectured, no craft similar to the American cruising canoe had ever be- fore been seen there. Curiosity to examine the novelties, coupled with the knowledge of our plan to cruise as far as the Black Sea, which had been widely disseminated by our advance agent in his brief stay, made a ripple of excitement all over th^ town, and the inn-yard was constantly crowded with visitors, many of them skilled mechanics, for the neigh- borhood is widely famous for its clocks and wood-carvings. Only one of us, as I have already confessed, was acquainted with a canoe of this kind, but we were all experienced in the management of birch-barks and Canadians and other small craft. We efEectually concealed our ignorance from the spectators, however, and in the guise of testing the ap- paratus after its long journey, worked the sails, rudder, and centre-board, set up the tents, shipped and unshipped the hatches, until we became quite familiar with the working of them all. It may be as well at the beginning to show the re- sult of our examination of the canoes and to describe them briefly, for the reason that our adventures will be better ap- preciated and our river life better understood if some ade- quate notion can be given of the craft that carried us by day and housed us for the night for three happy months. THE SKETCH-BOOK The three canoes were as nearly alike in dimensions, lines, weight, and fittings as the skill of an old and famous builder on the banks of the East River, New York, could make them. They measured 15 feet in length, 30 inches in width, and about 18 inches in extreme depth. A deck of thin mahogany covered the whole with the exception of an oval opening about 6 feet long and 20 inches wide, which was surrounded by an oak coaming about 2 inches high. A series of hatches was fitted to this coaming, and these could be adjusted in various ways, so that the canoe could be con- verted in a moment from an open boat into a modified Rob Roy, or entirely covered up and locked as securely as a jewel-box. Like all similar craft, a good strong oaken keel made the backbone, and a great many small ribs of riven heart-of-oak were copper-riveted to this keel, forming, with the stem — and stem-post and a few cross-timbers, a light, strong, and not too rigid skeleton. The sheer-strake was of mahogany, and the others of selected white cedar. All the fastenings were of the best copper, and the trimmings and fittings of nickel-plated brass. One peculiarity of the con- struction was that the deck-boards and all the strakes ran from stem to stem without a splice. The weight of each canoe, empty, was about eighty pounds, but with the nickel- plated drop rudder, heavy brass folding centre-board, two sails with masts and spars, paddles and general outfit, the whole weight in cruising trim must have been fully 200 pounds, but we never verified this estimate, judging only by the fact that at no time during the trip were they too heavy to be lifted easily by two of us. \A'e were naturally quite as much interested in the prac- tical working of the canoes as in their appearance, for we knew that the brilliant varnish would soon grow dim, the smooth surface of the mahogany become dented and scratched, and that the lines and proportions would alone remain to testify to the original perfection of the build. The two sails, a large leg-of-mutton main-sail and a mizzen of similar shape but much smaller, could be raised, lowered, reefed, and furled from the canoisfs seat on the floor of the cockpit. The mizzen-mast could be unshipped, the rud- der raised out of the water or lowered below the keel ; the centre-board, which shut up like a fan into a long slot in the T!.Z.M BLACK FOREST COW TEAM keel, could be adjusted to any desirable depth ; the hatches could be shipped and unshipped, the canoe baled out, and all other necessary operations of navigation performed with the greatest ease and rapidity. A double -blade paddle 8 feet long, and jointed so that the blades could be turned at right angles to each other, was to be depended upon for the ordinary means of propulsion, but we anticipated using the sails as often as wind, weather, and the run of the river would permit. When paddling or sailing, the after-hatch of the cockpit was to be left on, and a movable bulkhead, upon which the forward part of the hatch rested, was intended to serve as a back-rest for the occupant, who also might sit upon the hatch and thus change his position at discretion. The length between the bulkheads was 8 feet, and on the cedar floor-boards of this space we proposed to make our bed for the night, trigging the canoe up on the shore for the purpose, and thus providing for ourselves a dry, sheltered, and tomfortable bed under all circumstances. A box-tent of good duck was made to be slung between the masts and to button securely along the gunwales. This was provided with flaps for ventilation and entrance, and with mosquito- proof curtains. The water-tight compart- ments fore and aft made excellent spaces for dry storage, and during- the day all articles for handy use were to be kept behind the back-rest where they could be easily got at. The spare paddle, unjointed for the sake of packing, the sketching apparatus, maps and note- books, and the foot- steering gear and the fore-hatches, were to be the only en- cumbrances of the cockpit proper. When we came to ex- periment with our outfit we found that we had plenty of room and to spare, and subsequent experience proved to us the accuracy of our first plans for the stowage and arrange- ment of all our traps. We naturally depended largely on the advice of the vet- eran cruiser of the party for the selection of our outfit, and we two novices had a consultation with him shortly after our expedition was decided upon. Knowing nothing about the canoes, we asked him what we should take along to make a bed with ; whether we should carry an air-pillow or one of the small cork mattresses we had seen advertised for such trips. " Dear me, no !" he -said. " You don't need any blanket. Sleep in your clothes !" " But a pillow ?" we urged. " Just fold up your trousers for a pillow !" " Then what do you cover yourself up with ?' " That's simple enough. Pop your legs in the sleeves of your coat and your feet and ankles will be as warm as toast." " What about your shoulders ?" " Oh, well ; haul any old thing over your shoulders. You'll soon get used to that. The less you carry the better." This unique method of making one's self comfortable for the night appealed more to our sense of humor than it did to the practical side of our nature, and we decided to carry a good thick woollen blanket, a rubber "one of extra quality, a canvas boat -bag with a suit of shore -going clothes, a sleeping -suit, various spare flannels, socks, boating - shoes, and other small articles. This bag would make, if packed with that end in view, an excellent pillow; and we pro- posed to trust to our constitutional endurance to become indifferent to the hardness of the canoe floor. A bicycle cape, a sketching umbrella and camp-stool, together with a sketch -bag full of materials, practically completed the personal outfit of the majority of the party. Of all these articles we found the rubber ones alone to be of no real use. The bicycle cape shed water for a few minutes and then converted itself into a complicated system of gar- goyles which conducted the drip into the most intimate re- cesses of our clothing, and soon made the canoe floor a perfect swamp. As for the expensive rubber blankets, they were a fetich for many weeks. The hours and hours we waited for those dew-dripping sheets to dry ! 'I'he care we took of them lest they should get burned or torn, and prove worthless in the hour of need ! The trouble we took to pack them by day and to cover them up at night lest they should gather all the moisture of the neighborhood and communicate it to our clothing ! We never but once used them to shed the rain, and that was the third night of our expedition, but we conscientiously lugged them along with us the whole distance, and got only our bother for our pains. The sketching umbrellas and the camp-stools were, on the other hand, of the greatest use and a constant comfort. When it rained we sat at our ease on the stools and com- fortably cooked and ate and smoked under the spreading expanse of white linen. When a shower overtook us on the water we often hoisted the umbrellas and drifted along as sheltered and as dry as could be. Our batterie de cuisine consisted of three spirit-lamps of different sizes and styles, a few plates and cups of white en amelled ironware, a tin kettle, coffee-pot, teapot, and water- can, knives, forks, spoons, and ladle. These necessary ar- ticles, together with the hatchet, a few tools and copper nails, medicines and general stores, we soon learned to distribute properly among the three canoes, and thus divide the weight and amicably share the trouble of transportation. It was astonishing how much the canoes would hold, and every time we unpacked them we always marvelled at their loading capacity. In addition to the outfit described we often had to carry fresh meat, vegetables, milk and wine, and a large store of burning spirits, to say nothing of a great SPECTATORS many canned provisions. The limit seemed to be fixed only by the weight we were individually willing to struggle with. Our experiments with the canoes in the inn-yard and the rearrangement of our luggage occupied us most of the whole afternoon of the long summer day, but we had daylight enough left in which to see the town and stroll through the extensive park with its lakes and its sociable swans, and to gaze from afar on the inhospitable loolj;ing palace of the Princes of Fiirstenberg, who have arbitrarily declared for their own glorification that a large spring in their pleasure- grounds is the actual source of the Danube. They have surrounded the spring with expensive masonry, and erected a stone tablet with an inscription giving the information, among other things, that that spot is 678 metres above sea level and 2840 kilometres from the Black Sea by way of the Danube. The hotel where we stayed is at the southern end of the fine stone bridge connecting the two sections into which the Brigach divides the town. Conveniently near to the hotel is a large flight o^ stone steps leading down to the water, and here we proposed to launch the canoes early the next morning and make our start, a few yards above the source of the Danube, according to the prince's tablet, and about 2000 yards above the junction of the Brigach and the Brege, where the stream is first christened the Danube. CHAPTER II I HE final preparations for our cruise occupied more time than we anticipated, and it was quite eight o'clock before the canoes touched wkter at the foot of the slippery stone steps. A large proportion of the inhabitants of Donaueschin- gen gathered on the bridge and near the landing to see us off, and a dozen eager volunteers helped us carry our boats and launch them into the yellow stream. A few minutes sufficed to stow the traps, for we had sent the sails and tents and various other articles by rail to Ulm, thinking they would be more trouble than use on the upper part of the river, with its succession of dams and weirs. Then, amid the " Hochs !" and " Gliickliche Reises !" of the multitude, we scrambled in, each in turn, and pushed off. We firmly believe that no one in the great crowd of spectators detect- ed that two of us were handling a double-bladed paddle for the first time — not even the two ladies from Massachusetts whom we met at the inn, for their hearty interest in our trip, and their enthusiastic admiration for the canoes, doubt- less blinded them to the observance of our awkwardness. The swelling, curling stream bore us merrily out of sight of the town, and only an occasional paddle stroke was neces- sary to keep the bow in the right direction. Boys and girls ran along the shady path trying to keep pace with us, and we saw on the highway a carriage with our lady friends, who loyally kept sight of us for several miles. A very short time sufficed to familiarize us with the management of the canoes, so we could thoroughly enjoy the beauty of the land- scape and indulge in the unalloyed feeling of satisfaction at our successful start, and we swept on through the great alternating patches of sunlight and shadow, under trailing boughs of large trees and past beds of tall rushes. In a few moments the Brege came in with a volume of water about equal to the Brigach, and then the real Danube rushed on, already quite majestic in aspect, through fields kaleido- scopic with myriads of flowers, reflecting in its pools the clear blue of the sky with brilliant summer clouds, adding new charms to the lan'dscape at every turn. A number of. swans from the park at Donaueschingen swam just ahead of us nearly to the first village, Pforen, with its dominating church edifice and huge wooden bridge. When they reached this self-imposed limit of their excursion they rose into the air with great flutterings and splashings, wheeled 'around and passed us so near at hand that we could feel the air from their great wings, then sailed away in graceful flight to their home in the secluded islands of the park. Large white wing-feathers danced along down stream ; and when, many weeks afterwards, we dismantled our canoes on the shores of the Black Sea, we found one of these carefully stowed away in an angle of the underpart of the deck, and, with mock ceremony of a message from the Swan of the Source to the Sturgeon of the Sea, threw it to the strong north wind. The meadows were full of haymakers — men, women, and children — laughing and chattering and bidding us " Gruss Gott !" as we passed. The odors of the fresh hay and the perfumes of the flowers were almost intoxicating in their strength. Nature on every side of us had that peculiar fresh- ness and depth of color which comes with the first clear weather at the end of a long-continued rain, and the land- scape, seen from the level of the water, had the in- creased beauty of line and composition which so often comes from this point of view in the perspective. In less than an hour we reached our first weir near the little village of Neidingen, but the banks were easily accessible owing to the height of tlie stream, and in five minutes we had , dragged the canoes across a grassy point and had launched them again. From the accounts we had read of these obstructions to navigation of the upper river, we an- ticipated much greater difficulties than, we encountered at any of the one-and-twenty weirs and dams we navigated between Donaueschingen and Ulm, although the first one of all was by far the easiest to pass, and should not be men- tioned as a fair sample. The weirs are far more numerous than the dams ; indeed, there are but two or three of the latter. These, of course, must be carried over because of the sheer descent of the construction, whereas the weirs usually consist of a long slope of masonry over which the canoes can be shot without diflSculty at the end of a long painter. The delight of our first luncheon in the open air will never lose its freshness in the memory of either of us three. After a struggle with a weir at Geisingen, we landed in a pleasant meadow just below the village among waist-high ranks of wonderfully brilliant flowers, and lay for an hour basking in the balmy, perfume-laden, sunny air. At our feet the Danube, not the " beautiful blue " of song, but a vigorous, rushing stream, danced and sparkled in the sunlight. Before us were heavily-wooded hills with cool and tempting shadows, be- hind us the cluster of half-timbered houses and dignified church-tower of the village, and everywhere around the glories of a perfect June day. A few children, attracted by the sight of the canoes, interrupted our siesta ; but when the school -bell sounded they all scampered away, and their pirompt obedience to the call of authority made our inde- pendence seem all the more real and desirable. Then and there at our first landing-place we formed ourselves into a Society for the Preservation of the Banks of the Danube, ap- pointed a president, secretary, and treasurer, and a board of management, and unanimously adopted one regulation,' which was to the effect that we should not disfigure in any way the spots we might occupy as c5mps, but that all rub-' bish and unsightly debris should be. carefully hidden or thrown into the stream. To the honor of the S. P. B. D. let it be chronicled here that the regulation was strictly ob- served to the very end of the cruise. ■ Below Neidingen and past Geisingen, Immendingen, and Mohringen the river winds through broad, fertile meadows, and in summer it is a panorama of wild-flowers. In the quiet pools of the stream we startled many water-fowl, and once caught sight of a deer feeding near the water. Numerous huts along the bank showed us that this was a favorite shooting-ground in the season, and there were many indica- tions that the game is carefully preserved. The whole of that perfect first day was one uninterrupted succession of surprises and delights, both in landscape and architecture. The frequent villages were all of them interesting and pict- uresque both in construction and in situation, and as the houses lost their alpine character and became more solid and settled in type, they formed fascinating groups, and made a charming feature of every view. In the late afternoon we floated out of the sweet air of the meadows into a stratum of efHuvia from the tanneries of Tuttlingen; and but for the fact that the town claims as its hero Max Schneckenburger, the author of the words of " Die Wacht am Rhein," who was educated here in his youth, and for the more cogent reason of hunger, we probably should have paddled past the town without pausing longer than to admire some of its architectural features. Tuttlin- gen is not all tanneries, although, as we approached, we thought it must be, by the smell. It is a goodly-sized place, with the usual castle, an unusual church, and red -tiled houses, many of them elaborately half-timbered. Opposite the town, which straggles along the right bank of the stream, a great open meadow is in process of reclamation from the floods, and is being converted into a park or public pleasure- ground. In this flat expanse of rough ground stands a great square mass of masonry, which will sometime or other supfKjrt the statue of Schneckenburger, for the Tuttlingers are actively engaged in gathering subscriptions for this monument Schneckenburger can scarcely be called a poet, for these verses are probably the only ones of any account he ever wrote — at least, no others have been preserved — ^iC liSJ ^< Hut {or duck shooting JMelcltn-gen. and they came from his pen at the age of twenty-one. Nine years later, in 1849, he died, having become established as a small merchant, after several years' experience as a commercial traveller. From the accounts given of him by his widow, the distinctive feature of his character was patriotic fervor, which found its earliest expression in his choice of a motto, " Deutsch," in his school-boy days, and later in the sentiments of " Die Wacht am Rhein." The ever-active discussion in our camp, whether the extraordi- nary popularity of the patriotic song is due to the verses or to the music, is hereby passed on for final settlement to the readers of this narrative. We never could agree about it. As it was already late when we reached Tuttlingen, we proposed to hurry our dinner so as to have plenty of day- light to shoot the great weir which filled the air with its roaring. But the deliberate ways of German landlords are not easily changed, and we only succeeded in. getting off in the late twilight. With some misgivings we paddled out into mid-stream, towards the sound of the falling water, between the two great bridges. The fame of our expedition had spread far and wide, and it was the hour of leisure, so the Tuttlingers had assembled by thousands along the banks and on the bridges to see the mad strangers come to grief in the cataract on the great weir. The sight of the black masses of people stimulated us almost to rashness, and, without mutual consultation, we steered straight for some snags which had caught on the angle of the weir, and jumping out into the knee-deep water, each of us shot his canoe over at the end of the painter fastened to the stern and, holding the line, scrambled down the incline where the water was shallowest, jumped into his canoe and swept away under the second bridge. All this was done in very little longer time than it takes to tell about it. When the three canoes appeared al- most simultaneously in the smooth water below the second bridge, shouts of •'Hip! Hip!" and " Gliickliche Reise !" echoed from the hill- sides to the towers of Honberg Castle. We replied in chorus " Schneckenburger soil hoch lebeu !" and dramatically disap- peared in the gather- ing"darkness. A half- dozen youths, ambi- tious to discover where and how we were going to pass the night, followed us along the bank, and we were loath to make t.h.AJML MAX SCHNECKENBURGER, AUTHOR OF ' AM RHEIN " [From an old portrait] DIE WACHT our first camp until we had gotten rid of them. We accord- ingly paddled on and on, scarcely able to see the banks, and at last found an apparently secluded spot and landed, We hauled up the canoes into the dew-drenched meadow, made our simple preparations for the night, and lay down in the snug, warm cockpits. The first night in camp is never a very restful one, and the unaccustomed and somewhat cramped berth with all sorts of sharp projecting corners and the hardest of floors, did tiot assist our slumbers. Nor did the visit of a bevy of peasant girls who had ventured out from a neighboring farm-house, which we had not no- ticed in the darkness, help us to lose consciousness as they stood for a long time in the moonlight chattering in soft voices and repeating the story of our exploit at the great weir, which had evidently been related to them by the youths whom we had successfully dodged when we landed. The heavy dew obliged us to cover up our berths in some way, and we tried' the rubber blanket as the proper article for such a purpose. This was far too hot. Then we tried the deck hatches, which shut down so closely that they left no room for us to turn over and, besides, were as hot as the rubber Blanket. So we passed the night between fitful naps and impatient struggles with temporary roofs. The sun had not begun to dissipate the river fog before we had taken our plunge and were ready for breakfast. By general understanding, the experienced cruiser, or Ad- miral of the fleet, was expected to do the cooking, and he had made elaborate preparations for this duty. The other two hungry members of the expedition watched the operation of preparing this first breakfast with eager in- terest, listening meanwhile to the words of wisdom wkich came from the chefz.% he sat in his canoe wedged into the narrow cockpit by all the paraphernalia of his temporary trade. ^i:^4M " It's no use to get out of your canoe to cook a meal," he said, with a tone of authority that silenced our incipient suggestions as to a tidy spot on the flat surface of an ad- jacent rock. " It's a thousand times simpler and easier to cook in your canoe, for your things are so handy. All you have to do is to sit just where you are and reach for what- ever you want. Besides, you never lose anything, for noth- ing can get far out of sight in a canoe." All this time he was carefully arranging a towering, com- plex construction of tin and brass, with a large spirit-lamp be- neath. It was a coffee-machine of his own invention, which, after having been charged with the various materials, was expected to make a most excellent brew at one operation. The water was to come to a boil at the same time with the milk, and then be forced in some mysterious way through the coifee, and come out cafi au lait of a quality not to be found this side Paris. Everything went on quite satisfac- torily for a few minutes, and then the spectators saw a cloud of steam and a fountain of milk suddenly rise high into the air, and, simultaneously with the explosion, saw the cook leap from the canoe all ablaze and roll wildly in the long wet grass. The canoe was covered with flaming spirits, but the fire was extinguished with little difficulty. The milk was all lost, the coffee scattered into the remotest crevices of the cockpit, the eggs were broken, the bread soaked with a nauseous mixture, and breakfast was in a mess generally. Fortunately, the damage to the person of the cook was slight, but the laceration of his feelings was far more serious and lasting, and he gave up the position of cook of the expedition which he had talked about for six weeks and had filled for six minutes, and became second dish-washer and scullery-boy. We were eager to be afloat once more, so we picked up a scratch breakfast and launched the canoes while the ring of the scythe was still in the air, and the busy spreaders had not yet begun their work. We ^hot three weirs in as many hours, and passed Neu- dingen, Miihlheim, and Friedingen before eleven o'clock. At the last-named village, a sweetly pastoral place among the hills, we encountered our first rapids, for the flood was so high that all the shallows in the river above had been quite cov- ered, and we had seen white water at the weirs alone. The channel narrows at this point, the hills crowd close to the banks, and great gray crags rise from the dark foliage on the steep slopes. Ruins of castles crown almost every promi- nent summit, and the scenery grows wilder and more beautiful at every bend of the river. Kallenberg, Wildenstein, Wern- wag, Falkenstein, and a half -score of other ruins, equally wonderful in situation, tempted us to sketch them, and we found the most delightful spots imaginable wherever we paused and exchanged the paddle for the pencil. About eighteen miles below Tuttlingen, in the midst of the castle-crowned hills, we passed the monastery of Beuron, covering with its extensive buildings a great flat point in the river, under sheer towering limestone cliffs, surmounted by a grim black cross several hundred feet above the chapel spire. ^ACilcLen.st