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294

THE UPPER RUINE GORGE.

very lieart of the Rhine-world, and is encompassed by beautieson every side, that are strewn thiek as shells upon tlie sea-shore.

The river, too, at St. Goar widens as it flows out of andinto the narrow gorge above and below it, and the " Ecks"at either end project so sharply into the flood as to shut outall farther view of the stream, so that the Rhino at this partreniinds one strongly of Windermere, though it is far morebeautiful than any Curnberland lake ; for the mountains thatenviron it are finely rugged, and ribbed with the schistoserocks that protrude in some places through the green hill-sides, like monstcr chines, and that seem in other places tostream down from the top as if they were a cascade of crags.

Then there are the grand old ruins cresting the summits,and lending a hoary historic life to the neighbouring mountains—and the little bits of vineyards, crammed in among the stoneswherever the sun can fall, and tinting the green-grey cragswith many a golden streak'—and the lovely repose of theValley openings, looking soft and cool in the rieh "clear-obscure" of the shade, that hangs over them like a veil ofdusky air, and with the steamy cloud of smoke that rises, asif it were so rauch morning mist, from the valley-hollows,telling of the peaceful homesteads that lie cradled within them— and the white frothy brooks Streaming under the littlearchways beside the Rhino, and whispering of the many millsthey give life and motion to as they come tumbling down thesteep rocky dingles behind, and pouring over the walls of cragthere in such a mass of foam that the very water seems nolonger liquid, but to be a torrent of powdery particles, likesnow, showered down from one ledge to another.

Then, again, the Rhine itself, as it streams past the boldcorner called the " Bank," just above St. Goar, runs in aperfect diagonal line across to the opposite village of St.