THE TRAUN. 261 



Orn.— We have now followed this water 

 at least thirty miles, and wherever we have 

 seen it, it has always displayed the same 

 characters of clearness and rapidity — of 

 green stream and white foam ; and we have 

 traced it from the snowy mountains of Styria 

 to the plains of Upper Austria, where it 

 serves to purify the darker Danube. How 

 has it preserved its transparency, though so 

 many of its tributary streams have been foul, 

 either from the thunder storm or from the 

 sudden melting of snows ? 



Hal.— The three small lakes and the two 

 larger ones, which are in fact its reservoirs 

 are the cause of this. The Grundel see 

 furnishes its principal stream, and this lake 

 is fed by two others — Cammer see and 

 Langen see ; and the tributary streams, 

 which unite at Aussee, from Alten Aussee 

 and Oden see, though one is blue and the 

 other is yellow, yet combine to give a tint 

 which is nearly the same as that from the 

 stream of the Grundel see, and which the 

 river retains throughout its course. Yet I 

 have seen even this river very foul, but only 



