118 A SPRIXG TOUR IN PORTUGAL. 



can say so much in a general way with regard to the Uni- 

 versities of Germany, Italy, France, or Spain. 



The journey by rail from Coimbra to Oporto occupied 

 three hours by express train, and in that short distance 

 we passed through as diversified a country as could well 

 be imagined. P'irst, through tlie interminable pine forests, 

 then through rich and highly cultivated valleys; now 

 through a large extent of swamp, in part inundated, in 

 part drained to meadows of emerald green, or planted as 

 rice grounds, as flat as Holland, and intersected by in- 

 numerable narrow but deep dikes, up which diminutive 

 white-sailed boats made their way, and had all the appear- 

 ance from a short distance of sailing on dry land. Then 

 we reached the foot of mountains, which stretched away 

 on the east to the horizon, and assumed quite grand pro- 

 portions ; and now we emerged on the sea-shore, with the 

 broad Atlantic on the west, and on all sides sand, and 

 nothing but sand, pure and simple, to be seen. This was 

 towards the end of our journey, and soon we came to the 

 terminus at Villa Nova de G-aia, high up on the southern 

 bank of the Douro, on the opposite side of which we took 

 in at a glance the imposing town of Oporto, its houses 

 towering one above another, up the steep hills on which it 

 is built, precisely as we had seen them at Lisbon and 

 Coimbra. 



The Portuguese custom-house is assuredly no pretence, 

 and when baggage has to undergo examination, it is 

 most rigidly and scrupulously searched, though not with- 

 out extreme politeness on the part of the officials. This 

 was the case at the terminus of the railway, before we 

 were allowed to take our luggage into Oporto: but the 

 suspicions, or rather I would say, the curiosity of the 

 officers having been satisfied, w^e entered the very roughest 

 of carriages, and then over the worst of roads, and with a 

 jolt that nearly dislocated our bones, we descended the 



