the following beautiful lines:

"The castled crag of Drachenfels
Frowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine,
Whose breast of waters broadly swells
Between the banks which hear the vine;
And hills all rich with blossomed trees,
And fields which promise corn and wine
And scattered cities crowning these,
Whose far white walls along them shine,
Have strew'd a scene which I should see
With double joy went _thou_ with me."

While luxuriating here amidst these grand and beautiful scenes of the
Rhine, we were visited, by a shower, after which I enjoyed the sublime
sight of _looking down upon a rainbow_ which stood in the valley below me!

That evening I rode by rail to Ehrenbreitstein which is opposite to
Coblentz.

Chapter XIII.

Coblentz.

On Saturday afternoon, August 14th, I prepared a programme of my
contemplated trip through South Germany, Switzerland, Italy and the East,
which, together with several hundred cards, I got printed in the
afternoon. By means of these programmes I informed my correspondents in
America, in which cities I would look for mail matter and at what times I
expected to reach them.

Mr. Elmer, of the _Coblentzer Volkszeitung_, told me that the dialects of
the German language are so different, that the people of Coblentz and
those of Cologne can scarcely understand each other when they speak their
peculiar dialects.

The principle, that whenever a stream of water makes a curve, the outside
bank (that which turns the water from its strait course) is always more
precipitous than the other in proportion to the amount of curvature of the
stream, is well illustrated at the confluence of the Mosel and the Rhine
at Coblentz, by the course of the latter. The waters of the Mosel flow
almost perpendicularly against the right bank of the Rhine, and have
helped it in forming the precipitous rock of Ehrenbreitstein rising to the
height of 387 feet above the river, upon which stand the famous
fortifications of that name. The Rhine curves toward the left for about
six or eight miles, and its right bank is in consequence high and steep,
while the left bank is in the form of a gradual slope, bearing a striking
resemblance to the valley of the Jordan for a mile around Siegersville,
Lehigh Co., Pa. Another principle, that the width of a valley and the
hardness of its bed is always in proportion to the fall of the stream of
water flowing through it, does also find as ample