which there is to rear. Friedrich, having
settled the positions, rides out reconnoitring; hither, thither,
over the Heights of Trettin. "The day being still hot, he suffers
considerably from thirst [it is our one Anecdote] in that arid tract: at
last a Peasant does bring him, direct from the fountain, a jug of pure
cold water; whom, lucky man, the King rewarded with a thaler; and not
only so, but, the man being intelligent of the localities, took with him
to answer questions." Readers too may desire to gain some knowledge of
the important ground now under survey.

"Frankfurt, a very ancient Town, not a very beautiful," says my Note,
"stands on an alluvium which has been ground down from certain clay
Hills on the left bank of Oder. It counted about 12,000 inhabitants in
Friedrich's time; has now perhaps about 20,000; not half the bulk of
its namesake on the Mayn; but with Three great Fairs annually, and much
trade of the rough kind. On this left or west bank of Oder the country
is arable, moderately grassy and umbrageous, the prospect round you
not unpleasant; but eastward, over the River, nothing can be more in
contrast. Oder is of swift current, of turbid color, as it rolls under
Frankfurt Bridge,--Wooden Bridge, with Dam Suburb at the end;--a River
treeless, desolate, as you look up and down; which has, evidently,
often changed its course, since grinding down that alluvium as site for
Frankfurt; and which, though now holding mainly to northward, is still
given to be erratic, and destructive on the eastern low grounds,--had
not the Frankfurters built an 'Oder-Dam' on that side; a broad strong
Earth-mound, running for many miles, and confining its floods. Beyond
the Dam there are traces of an 'Old Oder (ALTE ODER);' and, in fact,
Oder, in primeval and in recent time, has gone along, many-streamed;
indenting, quarrying, leaving lakelets, quagmires, miscellaneous sandy
tumult, at a great rate, on that eastern shore. Making of it one of
the unloveliest scenes of chaotic desolation anywhere to be met
with;--fallen unlovelier than ever in our own more recent times.

"What we call the Heights of Kunersdorf is a broad Chain of Knolls;
coming out, at right-angles, or as a kind of spur, from the eastern high
grounds; direct towards Oder and Frankfurt. Mill-Hill (MUHLBERG) is
the root or easternmost part of this spur. From the Muhlberg, over
Kunersdorf, to Oder-Dam, which is the whole length of the spur, or Chain
of Knolls, wil