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more in a future letter. After resting an hour, and taking some refreshment at this, which is known by the name of the Silesian baude, we - recommenced our ascent, and after toiling and panting half an hour longer, reached what is called the back of the Riesengebirge, 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 its ghastly jaws before us; a sort of isthmus, or tongue of land, however, allowed us to proceed about an hundred rods further, 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 Small Snowpit. 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 needie; 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 gray vapours that bordered the far-extended horizon, The weather, which is here almost always cold, even when 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 natural philosophers, whether it is a marine or volcanic production.' P. 86.

The Elbe, as its name implies, issues from eleven springs, but its real sources are innumerable; for everywhere, on the mountains, bubbling springs arise, flowing in rippling currents cool and clear.' The Bohemians and Silesians contend for the honour of producing this famous and useful river; and, as the boundary on the summit of the mountains is not precisely defined, the contest will not be easily settled. The Elbe, however, falls on the side of Bohemia, and thence directs its course to the west, and afterwards to the north. The Oder, on the other hand, falls into Silesia, and finds a way through the sands of Brandenburg to the Baltic. We have already noticed the substance of the following paragraph.

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 to us, both in conversation and by the books of the 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.' P. 94.

The view from the Reisenkoppe, or the Giant's Head, is another striking feature in the picture.

'The darkness of the night had been gradually dispersing, and the borders of the horizon at the east gradually reddening from the moment when we left the baude, so that I was apprehensive the queen of day, as Zöllner on a similar occasion calls the sun, would shew his glowing face before we should reach the summit, and to avoid this disappointment doubled the usual pace of ascent, and in another quarter of an hour stood at the door of the chapel on the top of the mountain. About ten minutes after, the great luminary rose in all his glory, from the lower cloud which bordered the horizon; for although the weather was remarkably fine for this region, the sky was not perfectly clear, and a murky vapour hung upon the atmosphere, which intercepted a part of the immense extent of territory which would otherwise have been within the compass of our vision. I had heard so much of the apparent magnitude of the sun's disk when seen rising from this spot, that when I came to view it I found it less striking than I imagined; it appears about the size of a large coachwheel; but the same effect may at any time be produced by looking at it through a telescope.

The prospect from this spot is of course more extensive than from any other point upon these mountains; and its grandeur is augmented by the circumstance that the eye can range freely, bounded only by the horizon on every side. The spectator has but to turn on his heel, and all Silesia, all Saxony, and all Bohemia, pass in an instant before his view; it is therefore truly sublime; but as it has the defect usually attendant upon sublimity, of being indistinct, and in some sort chaotic, the lover of beautiful objects must content himself with a smaller elevation. A painter at Hirschberg, by the name of Reinhardt, who is employed by the Academy of Sciences at Berlin to paint views of the most remarkable spots in this province, observed to me, that from the highest mountains there was nothing picturesque, nothing that he could employ as a subject for any one of his paintings.-When on the Schneekoppe, I felt the force of his remark; for when the eye embraces at once such an extent of objects, it perceives only great masses; whereas, all the pleasure that painting can afford is by the accurate representation of details.

• The proper Giant's Head is of a conical form, and the surface of the summit is not more, I think, than an hundred yards in diameter;

its perpendicular elevation is about six hundred feet, and the path by which it is ascended forms nearly a regular angle of about 4.5 degrees: the ascent would indeed be too steep to be practicable, but that when the chapel on the top was built, in the year 1668, a flight of stone steps was made to assist the traveller in mounting to it, of which a sufficient part remains to give no small assistance. The mountain itself appears to be a solid block of granite, upon which there is no appearance of vegetation, unless a kind of red moss, resembling rust upon iron, which grows on the loose stones that cover it on every side, may be so called: these loose stones, part of which are of granite and part of a species of white flint, are in such abundance that they wholly conceal the side of the mountain itself. On one side of the path as you approach the top, a precipice of about 1500 feet opens, by the side of which you continue to mount; it ends at the bottom in a narrow vale of perhaps a mile in extent, along the course of which are scattered a number of peasants' huts. Here too it looks as if the body of the mountain had been riven at a single stroke, and the rocks which stand on either side correspond in such a manner as to resemble the teeth of a saw. Opposite the summit, to the westward, is a mountain somewhat lower, called the Little Koppe, from the foot of which is a sloping grass-plot that goes by the name of Rübenzahl's pleasure-garden; other remarkable spots within the view are called his meadow, his pulpit, his grounds, &c.: the whole neighbourhood is full of his name.' P. 107.

We need scarcely add, that Rübenzahl is the Robin Good Fellow of the Silesian mountains. We select the following passage as of a different kind, not indeed for information, but to give the reader an idea of the low state of even the staple manufacture of Silesia, that of linens. The letter is dated from Schmiedeberg.

They' (the objects of curiosity) 'consist, principally, of linen manufactures, of various kinds; a business which, in proportion to the size of the place, is carried on with more activity here than at Hirschberg. The town contains, at most, five thousand inhabitants; and their exportations amount to about a million dollars annually.

One of the principal merchants of the town is a Mr. Waldkirch, who is at this time employed in erecting buildings, sufficient for bleaching from twenty to twenty-five thousand pieces of linen, yearly. For this purpose, he has one large house, in which he hangs up to dry the linen which has passed through the bleaching-tubs, instead of stretching it, as is usual elsewhere, upon a grass-plot. He gains, by this, the advantage of being able to perform the process of drying, the whole year round, and is no longer dependent upon the season and the weather. He is likewise introducing here, from Ireland, the use of oxygenated muriatic acid (I am not chemist enough to know precisely what it is), to whiten the linen the better. Here, likewife, we saw the process of dressing the linen, by passing it through a tub of starch; the object of which is, to give it stiffness, and a gloss to the eye; but which they have not been accustomed to here, and which

they say, perhaps with truth, is rather injurious than beneficial to the linen.

Another large manufactory, is that of white tape, belonging to Mr. Gebauer, which is likewise a recent establishment here. It is a linen manufactory in miniature, the whole process of making it being exactly the same. This, however, is more properly a manufactory, as the weaving, as well as the bleaching and dressing, is done here. There are between thirty and forty looms at work; and in each loom, from fifteen to thirty-six pieces of tape are made, in proportion to the width, which varies from about three inches, to a quarter of an inch. The machine by which so many shuttles are set in motion by one loom, is an English invention, as is, without exception, every contrivance for the abridgment of labour, which we have yet seen in this province.

The weaving is likewise performed in the manufactories of printed linens and cottons, and of damask table-linen. The printed linens are principally handkerchiefs and shawls; the figures upon which are partly painted by women, and partly made by wooden moulds, the surface of which is first laid upon the colours, ready prepared, and then applied to the linen. In cotton they work very little; and what they make is very much inferior to the English.

The table-linen is inferior in quality, and higher in price, than that made in Saxony. This manufactory does not thrive here, and would soon go entirely to ruin, but for the particular encouragement of the government. The damask is made either of linen altogether. or with a mixture of silk, of which they make a sort of table-cloths, much used within the country, but not exported elsewhere.' P. 136. We fhall again intrude, by selecting a picture of private life. • From the cloister at Grüsau (the day before yesterday), we returned to dine with Mr. Ruck, at Landeshut. It was a formal dinner of thirty persons, according to the fashion of the country; we sat down soon after one, and rose from table just before six. The whole of this time is employed in eating; for the ladies and gentlemen all rose together, and there was very little wine drunk. But as only one dish is served at a time, and in a dinner of three courses every dish must be handed round to every guest, the intervals between the dishes are of course very long; the usual time of sitting on such occasions, we are told, is about seven hours, but it was here abridged out of complaisance to us. After dinner we walked in the garden, and coffee was served in an arbour, where we sat some time and conversed. As evening came on, the company sat down to cards, and played until We were eleven, when a cold collation was served in another room. now permitted, as strangers, to return to our inn; but the rest of the company continued at their cards and the collation until half past twelve. This is the usual course of a great dinner in Silesia. The company consisted of the principal linen-merchants, and the Lutheran clergy of the place. Among them I found men of agreeable manners and of considerable information, but none of them spoke any other language than German. In general throughout Silesia speaking French is considered as an affectation of high life, and a sort

of ridicule is cast upon it; so that many who are well versed in the language scruple at speaking it even with a stranger.' P. 153.

We had here intended to take our leave, but are tempted to copy a little more: we trust the extracts (they are not long) will offer their own apology.

Yet, however interesting the sight of this country may be to a traveller passing through it at this season of the year, its attractions are counterbalanced by too many inconveniences to make it an inviting place for a permanent residence. We have had ample occasion to convince ourselves that the representations of the Prussian travellers in these regions, who make Saturnine times roll round again to bless this land with innocence and happiness, are greatly exaggerated, to say the least. Those passions which, in the more closely accumulated societies of mankind, contribute to make human life miserable, being here confined to a narrower sphere, and applied to smaller objects, are still active to make it uncomfortable. The climate, likewise, is at least by ten degrees of latitude more rigorous than that of the same parallel upon level land. Those mountain-tops, upon which we were regaled with refreshing breezes, are, almost the whole year round, swept with chilling blasts; those trees which now wave their verdure over the brows of the hills, three quarters of the year stretch forth these leafless branches, as if to implore the mercy of an unreJenting sky; those fields which now seem to exult under the burden of their fertility, six months of the twelve lie bleaching under a thick erust of snow. The transitions from heat to cold, even at the fairest season, are so great, so frequent, and sudden, as often to prove pernicious to the health; and scarcely any of the fruits of temperate regions here enjoy enough of the genial warmth of the sun to attain maturity. Were we to give full credit to Zöllner, the most moderate of the Prussian tourists in Silesia, we should suppose beggars to be a race of beings unheard of on the Silesian side of the mountains, but that the instant you set your foot into Bohemia, they swarmed round you by thousands. The superior condition of the Silesians is, indeed, very clearly, and even strongly marked in this particular, as the beggars are certainly more numerous on the Bohemian side. But even on the other, we were not fortunate enough to pass a single day without meeting more than one beggar; and the train of women and children who followed us to the Zacken-fall, gasping for a dreyer, was as numerous as that which pursued us among the ruins of Adersbach." 2. 178.

• Beyond Landeck we had been assured before we left Berlin that we should find very little for instruction, and nothing for pleasure. We had therefore fixed that for the bound of our outward excursion; and having on Saturday evening and yesterday morning satisfied our curiosity with a view of what was remarkable in the place, between eleven o'clock and noon set out upon our return. But we doubled at least the distance of the way, and more than trebled it in the badness of the roads, by going to see the waterfall at Wölfelsgründe. If you

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