52 
and the volcano, cloud and sunshine, life in its infinite variety of 
forms, offer a higher attraction, a more profitable study than any 
works of man. Time and distance have been shortened by 
improved locomotion, but the countries of Europe must needs be 
those mainly travelled by Englishmen. Increasingly mountain 
regions attract travellers. Devon and Cornwall, North Wales, 
Cumberland, the Highlands, and the rugged sea coast of Ireland, 
will always command a host of summer travellers. Outside our 
own islands, and within a few hours run of it, there are 
Scandinavia, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, 
and the countries lying round the Adriatic, each and all full of 
instructive lessons, and so varied in their attractions that every 
kind of traveller may there be amply provided for. For a 
remarkable combination of glacier, mountain, rocky cliff, and 
those wonderful fiords running into and intersecting the land, 
and giving great facilities for travel, Norway is increasingly 
attracting our countrymen and others. English is commonly 
taught in Norwegian schools, and readily spoken by the people ; 
the accommodation is good and the charges very moderate, so 
that Englishmen may ramble through that marvellous country 
with great comfort. But the Alps must needs be “ the play- 
ground of Europe.’ ‘These are so near our own homes, so 
accessible, so abundantly provided with accommodation, and may 
with care be so cheaply travelled, that they must ever be 
pre-eminent in their attractions. The Salzkammergut is perhaps 
one of the most exquisite bits of scenic beauty in Hurope. The 
mouutains are so detached, that broader views and varying 
scenes are brought constantly in sight. The lakes are so 
exquisitely set and so numerous that every day will bring one or 
more within range, and add the beauty of its own silvery surface 
and lovely settings. On the larger of these, the Traunsee, the 
Wolfgangsee, the Attersee, and the Mondsee, steamers are placed 
for the ordinary traffic of the country, and afford facilities for 
the leisurely enjoyment of surrounding beauty. No one visiting 
the Salzkammergut will neglect a bit of beauty in the south-east 
corner of Bavaria. Berchtesgaden, with its salt mines, Ramsau 
crowded with artists who are there to fill their portfolios, and the 
Konigsee lying among precipices of great height, and on which 
you are rowed by native boatwomen, will supply many delightful 
pictures to the traveller’s memory. Mr. Wyles also recom- 
mended a visit to the Dolomites, the mountain peaks rising to 
eight or ten thousand feet, often so strangely weird in their crags 
and pinnacles, standing amid scenery so beautiful and so easily 
traversed. 
Passing on to the modes of travel, the lecturer set forth 
the advantages of pedestrian excursions. You are independent, 
he said, both as to time and place. You can travel when 
