. The winter,
too, even in the more temperate parts, is often severe and long, there
being often from eight to ten weeks of skating, altho the last few years
have been abnormally mild. In the valleys of the Carpathians potatoes,
barley, oats, and cabbages are grown, while in the warmer south wheat,
maize, tobacco, turnips, and the vine are cultivated. Down by the
Adriatic Sea the climate is much warmer, but Hungary, as already
mentioned, has only the town of Fiume of her own to boast of. The
visitors who look for a temperate winter and want to get away from the
raw cold must go to the Austrian town of Abbazia, which is reached in
half an hour by steamboat, and is called the Austrian Riviera. Those who
visit Hungary should come in spring--about May--and spend some weeks in
the capital, the lowlands and hilly districts, and go north to the
mountains and bathing-places in the summer months.

Tokay produces some of the finest wine in the world, and the vintage
time in that part of the country is most interesting and picturesque.

[Footnote A: From "Hungary." Published by the Macmillan Co.]

BUDAPEST[A]

BY H. TORNAI DE KOEVER

Budapest is one of the most beautifully situated cities in Europe.
Nobody can ever forget the wonderful sight of the two sister towns
divided by the wide and swiftly flowing Danube, with the steamers and
barges on her waters. Buda, the old stronghold, is on one side with the
fantastic "Gellert" hill, which is a formidable-looking mass of rocks
and caves; farther on is the lovely royal palace with its beautifully
kept gardens clinging to the hillside; then the oldest part, called the
stronghold, which has been rebuilt exactly in the style Matthias
Corvinus built it, and which was demolished during the Turkish invasion.
Here is the old church of Matthias too, but it is so much renovated that
it lacks the appearance of age. Behind the smaller hills larger ones
are to be seen covered with shady woods; these are the villa regions and
summer excursion places for the people.

Along the Danube are green and shady islands of which the most beautiful
is St. Margaret's Isle, and on the other side of the waters is the city
of "Pest," with the majestic Houses of Parliament, Palace of Justice,
Academy of Science, and numerous other fine buildings. At the present
time four bridges join the two cities together, and a huge tunnel leads
through the first hill in Buda into another part of the town. One can