were not used, however, medicinally, until 200 years afterwards; and at first patients used to be let down by ropes from the cliffs into the very fountain, to be steeped there for hours, and drawn up again. The next progressive step in comfort was a number of cells like magpies' nests, pinned to the walls around the fountain, where patients might abide the season. In the next age men's ideas in therapeutics were so advanced, that they conducted the hot medicinal water by conduits out of the gorge, and built the grisly bathhouses at the entrance; and still later they have come to the perfection of the system, by conveying the water down to the comfortable inn at Ragatz.

The old abbey of Pfeffers, in the village of the same name, should be visited, were it but for the walk thither. The path lies up the left side of the ravine, but at a level high above the river, and through a dense wood. While climbing this side of the mountain, the traveller looks down upon the top of the rock which overhangs the true gorge of the Tamina, and here screens it from sight. The path soon turns, leads down the hill and across the Tamina with its horrid chasm, by a natural bridge of grass-covered rock. The opposite side of the ravine is ascended for nearly a mile by stairs partly constructed with trunks of trees, and partly hewn in the living rock. On gaining the ridge of the mountain we come to a char-road, which brings us to Pfeffers, and thence by an easy descent to Ragatz.

The Benedictine Abbey of Pfeffers was founded in 713. In the middle ages the revenues of the foundations were estimated at 216,000 Swiss francs, and the abbot had princely rank and title. In 1838 internal discords, and revenues impaired by the French, induced the brethren to petition for the dissolution of the monastery. The request was granted. The conventual edifice, the Hof Ragatz, and the old baths, became public property, and were immediately improved and turned to profit, while the brethren received annuities for life. From the village of Pfeffers the char-road leads by an easy ascent to Ragatz. Here the traveller should make arrangements for getting straight to Constance, as the sleeping places on the road are of the worst description.

SARGANZ (inns: Hirsch, good; Kreutz, and Löwe) is built on the top of a gentle height which divides the valley of the

Rhine from that of the Secz. A curious old castle surmounts the town. Here a road leads from the valley of the Rhine to Zürich by the lakes of Wallenstadt and Zürich.

The villages on the remainder of our route have little to distinguish them individually: each of them is in the neighbourhood of some castle ruin, with which a legend, generally turning upon some deed of blood, is connected.

SEVELEN (inn, Traube), a picturesque village built between hills and a rock, is commanded by the old burg of Wartan. Werdenberg, four miles beyond, has a castle on its height, which was the seat of a family whose names frequently occur in the Swiss history of the middle ages.

SENNWALD (inn, Post) lies at the foot of the Kamor. Just before reaching it the road passes an abruptly-projecting rock, called die Kanzel, or the Pulpit. The Kamor is above 5300 feet high, and commands a fine view, which, however, is surpassed by that from the Hohenkasten, a mile distant from it, and 100 feet higher. From the summit the eye ranges over the Lake of Constance and away to Swabia, the valley of the Rhine, the three ranges of Appenzell, the Vorarlberg, and the Bandner Alps. In the tower of the church at Sennwald there is a coffin with a glass lid, in which is exhibited the body of one of the lords of Hohensorx, who, having fled from Paris at the Bartholomew massacre, fell by the hand of his brother's son.

ALTSTETTEN (inns: Drei Könige, or Post; Krone, and Rabe neither to be commended) is a town of 6500 inhabitants.

RHEINECK (inns: Hecht, or Post; Krone), a village of 1400 inhabitants, on the Rhine, about four miles from the Lake of Constance. At Alt the road reaches the margin of the lake and skirts it for about four miles, bringing us to

RORSCHACH (inns: Krone, or Post; Grüner Baum, and Ander). The town, although small, is a place of some importance, as the haven which receives the grain of Swabia, imported in considerable quantities for Swiss consumption. On Tuesdays and Saturdays its corn-market presents an animating scene to the eye of the traveller who has become accustomed to the quiet of the interior.

The steamers make the journey between Constance and Rorschach in three hours. Their hours of starting are changed so frequently, that only information obtained as re

quired can be useful. In 1851 eight steamers were plying on the lake, and in 1852 orders were given to increase the number by two others. The fare to Constance is 1 fl. 42 kr.

The Lake of Constance is, with the exception of the Leman, the only frontier lake of Switzerland, and performs for the Rhine the same process of filtration which the southern lake effects for the Rhône. It is smaller in superficial extent than that of Geneva, but exceeds it in the depth and volume of water, being 44 miles from Bregenz to its extreme north-western prolongation at Ueberlingen, and 30 from Bregenz to Constance. Its present width, taken between the embouchure of the Aach on the north and Wiedehorn on the southern shore, is about 9 miles. Its coasts border five sovereign European states, whose territories lie in the following order, starting on the right bank of the Rhine at its embouchure; viz. Austria, Bavaria, Wirtemberg and Baden, and Switzerland, which possesses the whole southern coast. Numerous streams augment the body of water poured in at the Rhine, and contribute in their measure to fill up the basin of the lake. The Lake of Constance has no picturesque charms to place in competition with those of Geneva or Lucerne its banks are flat, or, at most, slightly undulating, and, except at the eastern extremity, where the mountains of the Vorarlberg come in view, is devoid of any peculiarly Swiss features.

Diligences pass through Rorschach to St. Gall (a threehours' journey) three times a-day; and as often to Constance.

CONSTANCE TO SCHAFFHAUSEN.

CONSTANCE (inns: Hecht, Adler, Badischen Hof, and Hôtel de Lille). The latter is not included, like the city and the other inns, within the Baden frontier, and being thus exterior to the Zollverein or German customs union, its guests escape the usual searching. The old city of Constance, which once numbered 40,000, but now has only 5300 inhabitants, lies on the north-west end of the lake, where the Rhine recommences its journey within its own banks. For four hundred years subject to Austria, and the seat of an episcopal see, which was held in succession by 84 prelates, was snatched from its emperor and bishop in 1802, and three years later ceded to Baden by the peace of Pressburg—an ar

rangement which was ratified in 1815. Its streets and buildings have a venerable air. The Dom, or minster, was commenced in 1052. It is of pointed architecture, with two handsome turrets at the west end, and two curiously carved oaken doors. The Great Council of Constance, which met in 1414, and sat four years, held its session in the hall of the Kaufhaus. Here the German emperor, the pope, 26 princes, 140 counts, more than 20 cardinals, 7 patriarchs, 20 archbishops, 91 bishops, 600 other clerical dignitaries and theologians, and about 4000 priests, assembled to settle the divisions of the church. The pretended heresies of Wickliffe and Huss were here condemned; and the latter, notwithstanding the assurances of safety given him by the emperor, was burnt July 6, 1415; and his friend and companion, Jerome of Prague, met the same cruel fate May 30, 1416. The hall of meeting is now used, as its name implies, as a markethouse. A number of relics are, however, still preserved, and exhibited at one franc per head. Among these are the chairs on which sat the emperor and pope, a full-sized model of the dungeon in which Huss was confined, and the Bible of the martyr. Huss was confined in the Dominican convent, now used as a cotton-printing establishment. The suburb of Bruhl, outside of the town, contains the field in which Huss was burnt, after being delivered by the pope to the emperor, and by him to the provost of Constance. The house in which Huss lodged until treacherously seized and cast into prison is in the Paul's Strasse.

PETERHAUSEN, on the north bank of the river opposite Constance, was once a monastery, whose abbot had princely rank and title. It was suppressed in 1803, and is now one of the residences of the sovereign.

A diligence runs daily in five hours along the road on the south of the Rhine to Schaffhausen, and a steamer makes the distance five times a-week in four hours.

At the point where the river enters the lower lake of Untersee is the castle of Gottlieben, an episcopal stronghold where Huss and Jerome of Prague were confined. Pope John XXIII., their gaoler, was in turn himself thrown into the same prison, by order of the Council of Constance, which first deposed him. He escaped, however, more easily than the Bohemians, being merely reduced to the rank of a cardinal.

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 requirementsof 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