is thirteen hundred and forty-four feet above the level of
the sea.

"The Rhine issues from the lake at Constance, and flowing a few miles
westward, again expands into the Unter See, which is thirty feet lower
than the upper lake. It gradually contracts till the stream is about
three hundred feet wide at this point. Steamers formerly ran from
Constance to Schaffhausen; but since the completion of the railroad
they have discontinued their trips. The falls which you see, and will
visit on Monday morning, are seventy feet high. Below the cataract the
river is navigable for boats without obstacles as far as Laufenburg,
where its width is reduced to fifty feet, and its waters rush down a
series of rapids. Here boats ascend and descend by the aid of ropes,
after their cargoes have been discharged. At this place the young Lord
Montague, the last male of his line, was drowned while his boat was
descending the rapids in this manner. On the same day his family
mansion in England was destroyed by fire. From this point to Basle the
fall is only fifty feet.

"From Basle to Mayence, a distance of two hundred miles, the Rhine
flows in a northerly direction. The current is very swift as far as
Strasburg, to which place it is navigable for vessels of one hundred
tons, though they are "tracked" by horses on the upward passage. The
bed of the river is wide in this part, and contains numerous islands.
At Mayence the course of the river changes to west, and again at Bingen
to the north-west, where the mountains again force it into a narrow
channel; and for fifty miles the stream flows through a beautiful
region, where the hills extend to its very banks, and many of their
summits are crowned with old castles. Below Cologne, the Rhine runs
through a low and flat country. The lower part of the river I have
already described in Holland."

The professor finished his brief lecture, and the party spent the rest
of the day in wandering about the garden, and in watching the flow of
the mighty river, as it tumbled over the precipice. The next day was
Sunday, and the excursionists attended church at the town three miles
distant. On Monday morning the tourists crossed the bridge, and
hastened to the garden of the Castle of Laufen, where were platforms,
stagings and kiosks, for the convenience of visitors, which afford the
best views of the cataract. One of these balconies projects out over
the fall, and the party gathered on this, and beclouded wit