The island of Reichenhau, belonging to Baden, is passed to the left by the steamer on the Untersee. The Benedictine Abbey on this island was suppressed in 1799: its church was dedicated in 806, and contains the remains of Karl der Dicke, grandson of Charlemagne, who was deposed by an imperial council for the feebleness of his government, and died a year after. The riches of this abbey were almost incalculable.

STECKHORN (inns, Löwe and Sarve) has for its kaufhaus an old building believed to have been a Roman castle. The Cistercian nunnery of Feldboch lies on the other side of the town.

STEIN (inns, Schwan and Krone) is an old-fashioned little town belonging to Schaffhausen, lying on the right bank of the Rhine, and connected with the opposite bank by a wooden bridge. Some of the houses, particularly the Rothe Ochse (Red Ox) and the Weiss Adler (White Eagle), near the kaufhaus, are embellished with old fresco paintings. In the old abbey of St. George there is a hall built in 1516, having a wooden roof covered with fine arabesque carvings and walls covered with frescoes. A good view may be gained from the old castle of Hohenklingen.

DIESSENHOFEN (inn, Adler), the Ganodurum of the Romans, is known to history by the passage of the French army over the Rhine in 1800, under Moreau, Lecourbe, and Vandamme. Nothing now detains us before reaching Schaffhausen.

SCHAFFHAUSEN TO BASLE.

SCHAFFHAUSEN. Inns: Falke, Krone, Schiff; the latter a cheap, second-rate inn, near the landing-place of the steamer from Constance; Löwe, to be recommended to travellers without ladies. There is no hôtel, however, in the town corresponding to the increased requirements of modern travel. Weber's Hôtel, situate on an eminence near the Zürich road, nearly three miles from Schaffhausen, and exactly opposite the Rhinefall, is a fine establishment. The table d'hôte is at 1 and 5 o'clock, and the landlord conveys guests proceeding to Schaffhausen either to the Post or the Pier for 1 franc.

The town, which is the capital of the canton of Schaffhausen, is situate on the slope of the north bank of the Rhine, and has

an industrious population of nearly 6000 souls, and considerable trade. It has every appearance of an old Swabian imperial city, and has better preserved the exterior forms of middleage architecture than any other town of Switzerland, having for centuries been exempt from destructive fires. The projecting three-sided windows, with their transomes and mullions; the curious roofs; the wall, which incloses the town on the landside; the stately old castle of Unnoth; and the ancient gates, give to Schaffhausen an appearance exceedingly picturesque, especially as seen from the neighbouring village of Fenesthal. Beyond this, however, the city offers little to detain the traveller, being little more than the Swabian gate of Switzerland. The Minster, began in 1104 in the purest round-arch style, and completed in 1453, was formerly the church of the Abbey of All Saints. It has a very massive, not to say heavy appearance; the Gothic portion of the structure is here and there in good preservation. There is an arched way carried by twelve coluinns, named after the twelve apostles: the Judas pillar, however, has been destroyed. The pulpit is isolated in a peculiar manner, and has the appearance of a tower. The great bell in the town, cast in 1486, bears the inscription, "Vivos voco, mortuos plango, fulgura frango," which gave occasion to Schiller's celebrated poem.

The St. Johanneskirche is said to be the largest in Switzerland. The Castle of Unnoth is a large round fortress with very strong towers, walls of great thickness, and many subterranean passages. The town library, otherwise an unimportant collection, contains many books and manuscripts of the historian Johann von Müller (born at Schaffhausen in 1809), and of his brother George. The once celebrated bridge over the Rhine was destroyed by the French under Oudinot, in 1799: the model is to be seen in the library. The original was 365 feet from the extreme piers.

Diligences run daily to Basle, Zürich, Freiburg (in Baden), and Berne. Steamers run to Constance five days a-week; the journey up the stream occupies seven or eight hours, just twice the time required for the descent.

The FALLS OF THE RHINE are two good miles from Schaffhausen. The best mode of reaching them is by engaging a boat at the pier. The rapids between Schaffhausen and the

fall are not dangerous when the craft is in the hands of the boatmen of the place. The boat lands the visitor under Schloss-Laufen, situated on a rock covered with trees over the fall. Mr. Beuler the picture-dealer, who rents the castle, has ingeniously altered it so as to monopolise all the good views near the fall, and charges one franc per head for admission. Having entered, we are shown into a gallery within the house, close to the fall, but considerably above it. The quiet enjoyment of the spectacle is experienced here but those who desire something more awful and exciting may descend to the outer or lower gallery, which projects all but into the fall itself. Here the visitor seems to be within the grasp of some mighty power. The stage on which he stands vibrates to the concussion produced by the weight of waters; the ear and the eye are alike overpowered. Above is an enormous mass of water shooting over a precipice; below it is raging and foaming at one's feet. The best time for enjoying the view is in the morning, when the sunbeams are playing upon the water and the spray. On this account it may be advisable to sleep near the fall. In falling from the rock the Rhine forms three cascades: the most impetuous is that on the south side, which rushes over two rocks like pillars. The breadth of the river above the fall is near 300 feet, and the depth of the fall varies from 50 to 60 feet. In the stillness of night, and when the wind is favourable, the roar of the waters may be heard at a distance of seven or eight miles. It is related that a boatman, who fell asleep in his skiff, was once carried over the fall without danger to himself or his vessel. Recent experiments, however, place the possibility of this fact in a doubtful light, as boats have been shattered before reaching the chief fall. On the other hand, bodies of persons who have been carried down by the rapids have been recovered from the basin below in an unmutilated state.

Boats are always in waiting on both banks to ferry the stranger over; the boatmen exact four batzen for this trifling labour. The little castle of Wört stands upon an island close to the right bank, opposite Schloss-Laufen. Besides possessing a camera obscura for showing the fall, the house affords entertainment at inn prices.

The journey to Basle is often made by travellers fond of adventure by joining the raftsmen who navigate the timber floats from the fall to Laufenburg. The voyage occupies about seven hours, and the views of the Rhine valley are said to be worth the inconveniences of the enterprise. As nervous persons will not be likely to make the experiment, it is unnecessary to say that it demands a cool head, and occasionally a muscular limb, the rapids being frequent. The floats start in the morning, not before the mist has cleared off the river. As no provisions are obtainable on the voyage, the traveller by this conveyance will have an opportunity of exercising his forethought. At Laufenburg the floats are left, and not rejoined until they have passed the rapids or falls there.

The road from Schaffhausen to Basle offers nothing of interest before reaching Waldshut. Just out of the town it leaves the Rhine, to make a détour towards the south in company with the road to Zürich, while it makes a shorter section of the Baden territory. The country is for the most part open and well cultivated, with little timber or movement of surface. About three miles before reaching Waldshut we come again upon the Rhine, which, at Coblentz, is joined by the Aar. This affluent is in reality larger than the main stream, and from the extent of country which it drains might fairly be held entitled to give its name to the united waters.

WALDSHUT is one of the four (Black) forest towns. "A quaint, old-fashioned place, with one main street. We halted at the Rebstock, a tolerable inn, but smelling strongly of the cow stables under the rooms. We had tea in a little summer-house which overlooks the river. Here there is a good view of the junction of the Rhine and Aar. We slept at this inn the charge for tea, bed, and breakfast was, as nearly as may be, five shillings each."

At LAUFENBURG (inn, Post), a town of about 1000 inhabitants, built on both sides of the Rhine, which are connected by a wooden bridge, the river is narrowed, and the stream becomes, in consequence, more rapid. The bed of the river is also uneven, and thrusts up rocks, which render navigation dangerous. The name of the Lesser Falls, sometimes given to these rapids, is an exaggeration. It was here that

Lord Montague was drowned while attempting to cross the river in a skiff. The old German topographer, Merian, speaks of the practice of crossing the river here in small boats as not uncommon in his day (1642), but mentions summer as a dangerous season for the attempt. A few years ago a professional gymnasiast sprang from bank to bank, a leap of 17 feet. There is in this neighbourhood an old castle, once the seat of the Hapsburg-Stauffenbergs, a younger line of the reigning house of Austria.

Beyond Laufenburg the road divides: one branch is continued on the right, or Baden bank of the Rhine, through Seckingen; and the other crosses by the wooden bridge to the southern side of the river, and passes through Rheinfelden. The latter is that traversed by the diligence.

STEIN, a village on the latter route, where the road for Zürich branches off, has a good inn, the Löwe or Post. Seckingen, on the opposite bank, is seen from here, with its large church, once belonging to a splendid abbey which owned the entire canton of Glarus. Passing by Nieder Mumpf and Moehli, we come to

RHEINFELD, the last of the forest towns. Inns: Drei Konige, Krone or Post. It is built of stones taken from Augusta Rauracorum. Formerly it was strongly fortified, and besieged times without number by the forces of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1744, however, it fell into the hands of France; but, since 1801, has belonged to Switzerland. The famous Duke Bernard of Saxe Weimar and Johann von Westh fought several battles under its walls in the spring of 1638, and in the end Bernard overcame his adversary, and took him prisoner. The Rheingrave Johann Philip perished in this last conflict. Two hundred years earlier the Confederates destroyed the fortress of Stein, formerly a seat of King Rudolph of Swabia, the anti-emperor Henry V.

BASLE-AUGST and KAISER-AUGST, two small villages, lie on the line of the road on either side of the river Ergolz, which here flows into the Rhine. Here once stood the Roman city, Augusta Rauracorum, founded by Munatius Plaucus in the reign of Augustus, and destroyed in the great northern migration. An abundance of Roman remains has been found where the site has been excavated. Herr Schmidt has made a considerable collection of such, and