220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Starting up tlie Rliine, we shall have jDassed out of Holland 

 before we leave alluvial soil, and a route which has much more 

 of geologic interest and variety, and is not devoid of beauty and 

 historic association, is to go across the Belgian coal-fields, scenes 

 of the worst European strikes, up the gorge of the Meuse. In 

 passing, I note that the curious porphyroids of Bonney (14) and 

 Renard have been recently blasted into in road-repairing, so 

 that the next comers will have a better chance than for some 

 years before, when the continuous attrition of geologists' ham- 

 mers had rounded off every corner. At Charleville-Meziferes, a 

 typical provincial French town, we stand on the rim of the Paris 

 basin, and grtjplicBas of the Lias abound. Thence, running along 

 the rim of the basin past Sedan, we come to Luxemburg or Metz. 

 Luxemburg is beautifully situated, being surrounded by canons 

 cut into the sandstone here so typically developed that it is 

 called the Luxemburg sandstone. If we go to Metz, the work of 

 fortification still going on gives good sections in the Jura. Only 

 beware lest you are charged upon by some too vigilant sentry, 

 as a friend of mine was. I escaped by being careful not to have 

 maps or note-books around in sight. However, if attacked, pick 

 up a cidaris club and defend yourself manfully. We can go on 

 to Treves, into the Eif el, or down the Moselle, or to Saarbriicken, 

 the great coal-center and first point attacked by Napoleon III, 

 and down the Nahe to the Rhine. Whichever is omitted may 

 also be taken as a side excursion from the Rhine. 



Suppose, however, we go straight up the Rhine. We come 

 first to Cologne. Climbing the cathedral, we see off on the south- 

 east the seven blue summits of the Siebengebirge, whence the 

 gray trachyte with sparkling sanidin crystals comes, that lines 

 the winding staircase we have ascended. In the Siebengebirge 

 is the cave of the dragon that Siegfried destroyed, and true it is, 

 according to geologic tale, that once the volcano did cut off the 

 mighty stream that glides in serpentine course beneath our feet. 

 The victory was but for a time, however. Siegfried is dead, and 

 so is the volcano, but dragons and rivers are hundred-headed 

 and immortal, and the Mbelungen gold is still guarded securely. 

 To the Siebengebirge, then, will be our next excursion, and we 

 had best start from Bonn, the famous university town. We can 

 there buy what guides we wish (16), and visit the collections of 

 the Poppelsdorfer Schloss, valuable and beautiful themselves, 

 and especially to us, as they illustrate by models and specimens 

 what we are to see. Some of the rooms are fantastically deco- 

 rated with bits of satin-spar and shells. Sturz's natural history 

 store, one of the finest and largest — but not the cheapest — in the 

 world, is in Bonn. His polyglot catalogue gives many hints for 

 excursions to the collector. 



