comprises a population of 80,000
inhabitants. Its Cathedral, covering more than an acre of ground and 216
feet in height, is deservedly famous. Its elegant spire, the highest in
Europe, is 465 feet in height. To procure a permit from the city
authorities to ascend to the "lantern," which is immediately below the
extreme summit, I walked about the city nearly an hour to find the proper
official. The view from the platform or roof of the building (216 feet
high) affords a fine view of the beautiful plains of Alsace, but many
ascend to the "lantern" simply for the satisfaction of saying that they
have done it. No one is allowed to go higher than the platform, except by
special permission from the city authorities, and accompanied by a guide
and protector, for which an extra ticket is required. The ascent is quite
easy for some distance, but by and by the spire becomes too narrow to have
stairs on the inside, so that we had to climb up on the outside along
ladder-like steps. If one would become giddy in this place, he might fall
from a hight of over four hundred feet into the street below! I cannot
stop to speak of the world-renowned astronomical clock which is contained
in this cathedral.

The railroad through the Black Forest is one of the great victories of
civil engineering which characterize this age of great undertakings. We
passed in exactly one hour through 38 tunnels, during which time, in our
ascent of the mountains, we passed through one valley three times! When we
had reached the highest point, we saw the two other tracks at different
elevations on the mountain side below us! Here we passed for many hours
through pine forests, all the trees of which were raised from seed, (some
sown, and others planted). Many square miles of this mountainous section
is covered with pines planted as regularly as our orchards; and the
scenery of these mountain-sides green with dense forests in which the
comical tree-tops stand with mathematical exactness in the square or
quincunx order, is among the most beautiful imaginable.

Chapter XV.

Switzerland.

It is almost impossible to describe the scenery of the Alps to one who had
never yet ascended mountains above the region of the clouds, without so
bewildering his imagination that his fancy will call forth and accept more
fictitious notions than true ones. The best description that I had ever
heard of the Alps, was the occasion of my most incorrect conceptions about