rly
belonging to the family of Metternich, (God save the mark!) The tower is
surrounded with caverns and halls, hollowed out of the trass stone, and
profusely ornamented with fine oaks, pines, and spreading beech trees.
You may almost fancy yourself on magic ground, and looking on a fairy
castle, so peculiar is the effect. I next reached Burgbrohl and
Wassenach, passing several of the trass mills, for the stone is in many
places hard enough for mill-stones, and there is a considerable trade in
them to Holland, and thence to England and other countries. Half an hour
next brought me to the summit of the Feitsberg, one of the hills forming
the circumference of the lake; here I enjoyed a magnificent prospect on
the one side of the lake, well clothed with wood, with the old
six-towered abbey on its bank, and the heights of the Eiffel chain
enclosing it; on the other side, the view was so extensive as to give me
a glimpse of Ehrenbreitstein, and of the line of hills from thence to
the Siebengebrige. Though my object in climbing the Feitsberg was very
different, my surprise and delight in unexpectedly catching
Ehrenbreitstein at the distance of twenty-four miles even served to
withdraw my attention some time from geologizing, or from the scene
close under me. I recollect the same sensation on descrying Gravelines
sometime ago from the heights of Dover Castle, not believing the
distance to be within the powers of the telescope. True indeed is it
that

"Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.
And robes the mountain in its azure hue."

I was now in a rude and barren country, presenting a strong contrast to
the soft scenery I had left, and consisting of an elevated mountain
plateau, or table land of slate of the Greywacke sort, the heights on
the eastern side of the Rhine being of the same level, and the channel
of the river appearing as a narrow valley, which the eye overlooks
entirely. This table land is studded with isolated hills of volcanic
formation, and of a conical form, some of them having central funnels or
craters, from which the ancient eruptions have issued. The most complete
are the Hirschenberg, near Burgbrohl, the Bousenberg, between that
village and Olburg, the Poter, Pellenberg, and the Camillenberg, which
last rises about one thousand feet above the level of the surrounding
surface. There are many others extending for some distance in the Eiffel
chain and in the vicinity, but those I have mentioned are