greater distance. A brilliant view of the Seven Mountains beyond the Rhine may be had here. Before reaching Bonn, we see the Kreuzberg (Cross mountain), to which a fine avenue of fir-trees leads. The village of Poppelsdorf rises behind it. The cloister of Servites has been pulled down, but the beautiful Church, with its marble stairs and fine platform is still standing. The church contains some fine paintings, and in the crypt are to be seen mummies of the monks.

The Bonn terminus is close to the chestnut avenue leading to Poppelsdorf. Omnibuses ply between the station and steamers.

Steamers leave Cologne for Coblenz every morning, performing the voyage upwards in seven to eight hours, and downwards in five. Mayence to Cologne, ten hours; Mayence to Frankfort, one hour and a quarter.

The Bayenthurm, an old and venerable Castle of the fourteenth century, stands on the margin of the river at the upper end of Cologne. In winter it serves to stave off the ice shocks from the city.

The water journey from Cologne to Bonn is very dull, the banks being quite flat, and the villages lying on them uninteresting.

As we near Bonn, to the right, the outline of the Siebengebirge, or Seven Mountains, is seen to reflect itself in prismatic splendour, glittering and sparkling like the walls of some crystal palace.

The Sieg discharges itself into the Rhine on the right bank. This river is famous for salmon fishing. It abounds in this fish, some of which weigh from 30 to 50 pounds.

To the right the castle of Siegburg rises on an eminence above the Sieg, three miles east of the Rhine. It is now a lunatic asylum.

Hotel Rheineck, on the Rhine, near the landing place and station.

Grand Hotel de Belle Vue.

English Church Service, on Sundays, in the University Church. Presbyterian Church here. Reading Club at Welters, No. 56, Neue Thor. Population, 31,510, including the students and garrison. A university town in Rhenish-Prussia, of Roman origin (Bonna), and formerly the residence of the Electors of Cologne. One of its best edifices is the University, where the late Prince Consort was a student, formerly the Electoral Palace, in which, besides lecture-rooms, is a library of 250,000 volumes; the Academical Museum of Casts, a good collection in two rooms, 183 feet and 103 feet long; the Rhenish Museum of Roman Antiquities, including an altar to Victory; and the Aula, or academical Hall, decorated with fresco paintings, some by Förster, Götzenburger, and Herman, under the direction of Cornelius, others by the latter alone. The subjects are Philosophy, Medicine, Jurisprudence, and Theology, in which Linnæus and Cuvier are prominent, with Wickliffe, Luther, Calvin, St. Jerome, and Ignatius Loyola.

The Minster presents a very fine external appearance, and was founded by the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, in 320. It is built in the Byzantine style and is surmounted by five towers. It contains a bronze statue of the Empress.

The house of Beethoven is incorrectly pointed out in the Rheingasse. He was born, in fact, in the house No. 20. Bonngasse. A bronze statue of him, erected in 1845, stands in the Münster Platz. Niebuhr, the historian, is buried in the churchyard here, outside the town, with Bunsen and his wife, Schumann (statue), and E. M. Arndt. Here died, 1876, Professor Simrock, author of "An den Rhein, an den Rhein, zieh nicht an den Rhein," and of a popular review of the Nibelungenlied.

The Museum of Natural Philosophy occupies the Château of Poppelsdorf, approached by a beautiful walk, lined with a double avenue of chestnut trees. The collection is extensive and interesting; the various fossils, minerals, &c., illustrating the geology of the Rhine, the Siebengebirge, and Epel. A set of fossil frogs in it deserve notice. Open Wednesday and Sunday, 2 to 4; entrance, 75 pf. The

Botanic Garden adjoins the Château, and is rich, spacious, and well distributed. A Chemical Laboratory, and a School of Anatomy have been added to the University.

The Beauties of the Rhine begin to unfold themselves at Bonn. From the opposite side of the river the view of the Seven Mountains is magnificently grand, whilst they can also be seen with much advantage from the Alte Zoll terrace, out side the Coblenz gate. The view obtained from the church on the top of Kreuzberg, 1 mile from Bonn, is beautiful in the extreme. The Church was built in 1627, and is said to contain the stairs which led up to Pilate's Judgment Hall. They are in a chapel behind the high altar, and still bear, it is asserted, the stains of the drops of blood which fell from the Saviour's brow when lacerated by the crown of thorns! They are modelled from the Scala Santa staircase at Rome, and were built of Italian marble in 1725. Persons wishing to ascend them must do so on their knees. In a vault underneath the church are mummies. They lie in twenty-five coffins, and have cowls and cassocks on. They have been buried at various times, from 1400 to 1713, and present the appearance of cured fish. Very many other pleasant excursions can be made from Bonn.

Bonn to Coblenz.-Leaving Bonn, we see on the road side, 3 miles distant, the Hoch Kreuz (high cross), as it is called, a gothic monument, built by Wulfram of Julius, Archbishop of Cologne, in 1331-1349. About 1 mile distant from this, to the right of the road, and opposite the Hoch Kreuz lies Friesdorf, situated at the foot of a pleasant chain of hills which stretches from Godesberg, till they are lost deep in the district of the Roer. This place is worth notice, on account of the great mines opened in its vicinity opposite the Putsburg, as it is called, where the steamer stops for passengers to or from

Godesberg (Station).

Hotels: Blinzler's; Belle Vue; Adler.

A small village near the Rhine, containing about 3,000 inhabitants. The Draitscher Brunnen mineral spring and the baths are close by. The castle keep, the Godesburg, on the top of the hill, is an interesting object; it is ap1 by a serpentine path, and is a building

of the thirteenth century, erected by the Archbishops of Cologne, on the site of a Roman fort. It was taken and blown up by the Bavarians in 1583. A magnificent view of the Rhine can be enjoyed from the Donjon keep, which is 100 feet high. From Godesberg excursions can be made to the volcanic hill of Roderberg, and the Seven Mountains. The shortest way to reach them is by crossing to Königswinter over the Rhine by ferryboat (as below). A very interesting and delightful excursion, of about one day's length may be made from the foot of the Drachenfels, by ascending the left bank of the Rhine to Rolandseck, and again going down the river to Königswinter. A tour up the Ahr valley can also be profitably made, and with the excursion to the Seven Mountains, a visit can be made to the celebrated Cistercian Abbey of Heisterbach. A fragment of the choir

now only remains, a solitary monument of its ancient magnificence. The building was commenced in 1202, and was finished in 1233, being a beautiful specimen of the transition style from the round to the pointed system of architecture. In 1806, the greater part of the building was pulled down, and used up in the erection of the fortifications of Wesel. Leaving Godesberg we see at a short distance Ramersdorf and Plittersdorf, whilst a little further to the right Mehlem appears, having in its vicinity Roderberg, one of the most interesting extinct volcanoes of the lower Rhine. The Abbey of Siegberg is next seen rising into view, on the top of a hill. On the right are the villages

of Dollendorf and Oberkassel. We arrive at

Mehlem (Station); the nearest for Königswinter, at which are-Hotels:

Hotel de l'Europe. Hotel de Berlin.

Here the valley of the Rhine, properly so called, which begins at Bingen, terminates. It is a small village of about 1,200 inhabitants, situated at the foot of the Drachenfels, the ascent of which from here can be made in about half an hour. Donkeys to ascend the mountain cost 1m.; to Heisterbach, 1m. Boats to Nonnenwerth and back, 2m.; to Bonn, 11⁄2m.

The Seven Mountains, or the Siebengebirge, are seen on the right, and are a beautiful opening

summit are the remains of an antique church or castle. Drachenfels, or the Dragon Rock, is the most remarkable, and derives double interest from having been the subject of Byron's muse. It rises from the bank of the river in a huge wall of rocks, on the south-west declivity. In the lower half, you perceive the narrow, though high, opening of a cave, in which tradition records, dwelt the dragon whom the horned Siegfried slew:

"The castled crag of Drachenfels,

Frowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine,
Whose breast of waters broadly swells
Between the banks which bear the vine;
And hills all rich with blossom'd trees,
And fields which promise corn and wine,
And scatter'd cities crowning these,
Whose far white walls along them shine;
Have strew'd a scene, which I should see
With double joy, wert thou with me."-Byron.

The summit of this mountain can be arrived at in a little less than an hour from Königswinter.

From its top a magnificent view may be enjoyed of the country and objects all round. In our ascent we pass the quarry from which was taken the stone used in the erection of the Cologne Cathedral. Close to the top is a very good Inn, where the traveller will find comfortable accommodation, and enjoy a magnificent view of the sunrise, should he stop over night and sleep there. From here the view extends down the river for about 20 miles, closed in by high and picturesque rocks, which impart a wild aspect to the scene, greatly relieved, however, by the villages and farm houses filling up the foreground. The chief objects of attraction are the summits of the Seven Mountains, the Tower of Godesburg, the Volcanic Chain of the Eifel, and the island of Nonnenwerth. On the summit of the Löwenberg are the ruins of the castle in which Melanchthon and Bucer dwelt for a short period with the Archbishop Herman Von Weid. Close to Mehlem we find an extinct volcano, one of the most interesting on the Rhine, called the Roderberg. Its crater is a quarter of a mile round, and 100 feet deep. A good prospect of the Rhine may be had from the arch and turrets of the

Castle of Rolandseck, approached through the
Eliasschluchtor Gorge.

Rolandseck (Station).-Hotel:
Hotel Rolandseck.

The view from Rolandseck is very beautiful. If you desire to reach the ruins, you first strike into the horse-road, which serpentines across the hill in a westerly direction. You then come on the left to a footpath that takes you through an overgrown ravine to the summit. At the foot of the hill lies a hamlet with 350 inhabitants. On the pleasant island of Nonnenwerth there is a nunnery, built in 1673. It is now a ladies' school, and gentlemen are not admitted alone. It was taken under the protection of the Empress Josephine, who induced Napoleon to spare it, when the other religious houses on the Rhine were confiscated by the French. On the height of Honnef there are some lead and copper mines, and a little further down is Rhöndorf, in the shade of the Seven Hills-the majestic Siebengebirge. With these masses terminates the chain of mountains that stretches through Thuringia, Fulda, up to the Rhine.

The road from Rolandseck to Remagen is carried through a rock. It was begun by the Bavarians, continued by the French, and perfected by the Prussians. From the Siebengebirge to Unkel, the Rhine forms a new basin, bordered on both banks by cheerful landscapes. A number of villages lie in the plain, and on the slopes of the vinehills. Heister, Scheuern, and Rheinbreitbach lie on the right, and Oberwinter, with 700 inhabitants on the left. Rheinbreitbach contains 1,200 inhabitants, and has two copperworks, one of which, St. John's, is the oldest on the Rhine.

Unkel. A small town, with 600 or 700 inhabitants, situated in a very picturesque country, to the left. Opposite the town, on the left bank, there rises a mountain containing an inexhaustible store of large columns of basalt, under a layer of 30 or 40 feet of sandy marl ground. They stand and lie in the quarry in different directions, resembling those of the Giant's Causeway in Ireland; their ramifications extending under ground as far as the middle of the Rhine, though some lie so deep that one can see many of their horizontal sections at low water, and others again

generally appear above it. The most remarkable of these is the Unkelstein, a group that is evidently connected with the other columns stretching along the shore. There are dreadful traditions of the Unkelstein, similar to those of Scylla and Charybdis, current among the people, especially the boatmen. The basalt forms a first-rate material for roads, and as such is largely quarried. A landslip in 1846 raised the road 40 feet above its former level. We next see, to the left, the woody heights of the

Apollinarisberg (fine view of the Seven Mountains) which belonged to the abbey of Siegberg. It gives name to a tonic water for drinking in much repute, the Apollinaris Spring, discovered 1857. From 80 to 100 million bottles are exported, mostly to England, from the Company's works. It is rich in carbonic acid gas, and is called after St. Apollinarius, whose head is preserved in the ancient Gothic church, built from the designs of Zwirner, the restorer of the dome of Cologne. It is decorated

with frescoes, and lighted, except in the choir, by circular windows. It contains some of the best works of the German school of fresco painting, by Deger, A. Müller, and Ittenbach. At the bottom of the hill we see

Remagen (Station).

Hotels: Hotel Fürstenburg, good and moderate; kept by W. Caraciola, the proprietor also of Hotel König Von Preussen.

A small town, the Rigomagum of the Romans, with a population of 3,200 inhabitants. It lies opposite the high road from Bonn to Coblenz. When, in 1768, the beautiful road between the two latter mentioned places was being made, a great number of antique monuments were found here and about. They chiefly consisted of Roman milestones, coins, columns with inscriptions, sarcophagi, denoting pretty clearly that the Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Lucius had already founded a road here. The chief object of interest to the traveller is the Romanesque Gateway. It is close to the church, and has sculptured on it the signs of the zodiac.

To the right, a little beyond Remagen, are seen the basaltic precipices called the Erpeler Lei, which are 700 feet high, and almost inaccessible, and he energy and skill of human industed into rich vineyards.

The

vines are here, as in other similar steep vineyards (where one would almost suppose the mountain goat and her kids could alone be the vinedressers), planted in baskets filled with mould, and inserted in the crevices of the rocks. The costly Ley wine, the principal white wine of these parts, grows on the southern or eastern declivity of this steep. [The traveller is advised to taste it.-R. S. C.] Proceeding past Ockenfels on the right, the first turn of the river brings us in sight of Linz, on the opposite shore. From the basalt crags behind Linz and Erpel a good view of the river is to be had. From here a short branch rail of 7 miles runs up the picturesque Ahr to Bodendorf (Station.) Neuenahr (Station) has excellent warm springs, in a healthy spot, near Neuenahrberg (1,070 feet high.) Hotels: Kurhaus; Mariensprudel. Ahrweiler (Station), a small old town, under a castle. Altenahr, among the vineyards, has an old castle, at a good point of view. The Ahr valley is well worth a visit by lovers of picturesque scenery. Linz.

Hotel: Nassau.

A small industrious town, with a population of 3,310. It is partly fortified and belonged formerly to the Electorate of Cologne. In 1365, the castle near the Rhine-gate was built by Archbishop Engelbert III., in order to secure the Rhine toll and protect the town against the invasions of the citizens of Andernach. The castle, as well as the town-walls, are built of basalt, and the streets are paved with the same material. Not far from Linz is Leubsdorf, with its white steeple peeping forth from the right of the rock opposite the Ahr, which issues into the Rhine, opposite Linz, immediately below Sinzig. Passing its mouth, we see up the Ahr valley, the conical top of the Landskrone. This little mountain stream flows through a narrow, deep, and crooked valley, 12 leagues long, producing an excellent red wine called Ahrbleichert. Its stream is very rapid and sometimes overflows its banks, spreading desolation around.

Sinzig (Station)-Hotel: Stern-the nearest for Bad Neuenahr. A small town, 1 mile from the Rhine, by whose waters its walls might have been formerly washed. Its population is 2,300. It is the ancient Sentiacum, a Roman castle,