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nOJIESTIC MANNERS OF TUE fKTJSSIANS.

into it, you can see it mottlccl liko a sheet of polished mala-cliite, and streaked with the yellow and red-brown veins of themingled lake waters. The Aar, indeed, is as broad as theRhino itself, which has now increased in width to the breadtliof a moderate field.

A few moments more and the horses' lioofs clatter throughthe village of Zurzach, the long desolate streets resounding,ahnost with a startling effect, with the rattle of the wheels.Here the streets, that are channeled with covered runlets as atFreiburg, consist of one interminable line of shops; but whatis most pecnliar and striking, not one of these "magazins"is open, though it is long past noon; all have their blackshutters np, and yet it is neither fete, nor fast-day, nor yetthe Sabbath. It seems as if the plague were raging in thetovvn, or as if you had reached the " sleeping city" otromance, or—what is more common in these enlighteneddays — as if the people, in alarm at some prophecy touchingthe eoniing destruetion of the workl, had all run away tosome other quarter.

What can be the cause of the deserted State of the village ?you ask. Your wonder is soon stopped, however, by beinginformed that this is the great site of the Swiss fairs (thatof Zurzach being the most important of all the commercialgatherings throughout the Cantons), and that the shops ofthe town are opened only once in the year — and then butfor fifteen days — the merchants, who mostly cleal in leatherand skins, Coming from great distances, and some hiring themagazins, while others own them and pay rent all' the yearthrough. At the period of our visit, the only shops openwere the post-office and an establishment for the sale of pipes,though the wonder was how even the solitary snuff-and-tobaecomerchant eould manage to find cnstomers in such a place.

Beyond Zurzach, the post-road still lies closo beside the

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