continue to rise in this
way until they were out of the reach of the highest inundations.

Immense plains of the most fertile land, which seem to have been formed
in this way, exist at the present time along the banks of the Rhine at
various places. These plains are all very highly cultivated, and are
rich and beautiful beyond description. To see them, however, it is
necessary to travel over them in a diligence, or post chaise, or by
railway trains; for in sailing up and down the river, along the margin
of them, in a steam-boat, you are not high enough to overlook them. You
see nothing all the way, in these places, but a low, green bank on each
side of the river, with a fringe of trees and shrubbery along the margin
of it.

For about one hundred miles of its course, however, near the central
portion of it, the river flows through a very wild and mountainous
district of country, or rather through a district which was once wild,
though now, even in the steepest slopes and declivities, it is
cultivated like a garden. The reason why these mountainous regions are
so highly cultivated is because the soil and climate are such that they
produce the best and most delicious grapes in the world. They have
consequently, from time immemorial, been inhabited by a dense
population. Every foot of ground where there is room for a vine to grow
is valuable, and where the slope was originally steep and rocky, the
peasants of former ages have gathered out the rocks and stones, and
built walls of them to terrace up the land. The villages of these
peasants, too, are seen every where nestling in the valleys, and
clinging to the sides of the hills, while the summits of almost all the
elevations are crowned with the ruins of old feudal castles built by
barons, or chiefs, or kings, or military bishops of ancient times,
famous in history. This picturesque portion of the river, which extends
from Bonn, a little above Cologne, to Mayence,--which towns you will
readily find on almost any map of Europe,--was the part which Mr. George
and Rollo particularly desired to see. When they left Switzerland they
intended to come down the river, and see the scenery in descending. But
Mr. George met some friends of his on the frontier, who persuaded him to
make a short tour with them in Germany, and so come to the Rhine at
Cologne.

"We can then," said he to Rollo, "go _up_ the river, and see it in
ascending, which I think is the best way. When we get through