THROUGH WILD EUROPE 319 



or groups of peasants in quaint costumes going in 

 procession to some religious shrine or festival. In 

 the neighbourhood of the famous Iron Gates, the 

 scenery is particularly fine and impressive, far finer 

 than anything I have seen on the Rhine. Here the 

 river abandons its usual majestic but somewhat 

 monotonous course, and makes sudden turns and 

 twists through narrow gorges. Rocks of brilliant 

 colours, now bright red, now a creamy white, like 

 marble, rise abruptly in perpendicular pinnacles and 

 fantastic spires. 



On the south side may be seen, hewn into the 

 rock which overhangs the river, the old Roman road 

 made by Trajan. These rocky cliffs and perpen- 

 dicular heights should be interesting to geologists. 

 The strata in some places appear to be twisted and 

 contorted to an extraordinary degree. The rocks 

 in consequence present such a curious appearance 

 that I attempted to photograph them in passing ; 

 but it is almost impossible to photograph such detail 

 from a moving steamer, and the results were quite 

 worthless. 



After passing Belgrade, which happened after 

 dark, I interested myself in identifying the places 

 visited by Prince Rudolf in his memorable expe- 

 dition down the Danube. Since that date, 1878, 

 many changes seem to have taken place, which is 

 not surprising, for the farthest point reached by him 



