ur hours' walk from Troutenau, our host of the
latter place had erred widely from the mark. It was still four good
hours' ahead of us. Nevertheless, we had plenty of daylight before us;
and the prospect of using it among green fields and umbrageous forests
was not without its effect on the minds of persons who had toiled
throughout the morning along a dusty and burning high-road.

Though I have, perhaps, said more respecting the scenery of this part
of Bohemia than was necessary, I cannot omit to mention, that from the
brow of a hill which we ascended soon after our host quitted us, we
obtained as glorious a view of a cultivated mountain district as the
eye of man will probably rest upon in any quarter of the world. The
abundant wood of this fine country gives, indeed, to all its
landscapes, a charm which there needs but the presence of water to
complete, and to the particular scene on which we now looked down,
water happened not to be wanting. From the bosom of the river which
flows past Troutenau, the sun's rays were reflected; and as its course
lay through groves and fells,--now hidden between overhanging rocks,
now emerging again into a wide valley,--the effect was altogether very
striking. Moreover, to a varied and picturesque extent of hill and
vale, forest and green meadow, hamlet and town,--the latter either cast
into the recess of some deep glen, or straggling upwards along the
mountain side,--the Riesengebirgen formed the back ground; bald, and
frowning in all the majesty of rocky shoulders and snow-clad summits.
It was, indeed, a glorious view, and it tempted us to linger so long in
the enjoyment of it, that we did not reach our quarters,--the
comfortable inn at Aderspach,--till near eight o'clock.

There befel nothing during our progress from this beautiful spot, till
we arrived at the place where we had resolved to pass the night, of
which I need be expected to give a detailed account. All travellers on
foot, through strange countries, must expect to lose their way
occasionally; and we formed no exception to the general rule. Moreover,
our mishaps, this day, were the more provoking, that we chanced to have
penetrated into a comparatively thinly-peopled region, the two villages
which we traversed lying far apart one from the other, and there being
no hamlets nor detached houses to keep up the communication. Nor were
we, as it seemed, the only pedestrians to whom the district was
strange. As we were passing