44 TRANSACTIONS OF liOYAL SCOTTISH AUBOUICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



good-bye to the other kind friends who had escorted us thus far, 

 we weighed anchor, and commenced our voyage of 16 miles, which 

 distance we covered in about three hours. The passage down the 

 river was most enjoyable, the scenery being beautiful, and no for- 

 midable difficulties being encountered. On landing at Dombo, 

 which is very largely composed of thatched houses, built and in- 

 habited by Jews, we drove to the railway at Taraczkos, halting 

 midway to inspect a forest railway, which was in process of con- 

 struction, over a distance of 14 miles, to that place. We then left 

 by train for Kassa, where we arrived late at night. 



Lipto-Ujvar. 



Leaving Klssa on the morning of the 9th at 6 a.m., we took the 

 train to Lipto-Ujvar. We travelled up the valley of the Hernad, 

 through fine oak, beech, and birch woods, which further on give 

 way to cultivation, surmounted on the higher slopes by forests of 

 spruce and silver fir. 



In this neighbourhood there are numerous iron, copper, silver, 

 and antimony mines ; and the line of railway passes close by a 

 group of smelting furnaces, the sulphurous smoke from which has 

 completely destroyed and kept down all traces of vegetaticm for 

 some distance around them. We noticed several noblemen's castles, 

 with their distinguishing double roofs. The estates in which they 

 stand were, generally speaking, granted with the patent of nobility, 

 and the proprietor lives surrounded by the residences of the junior 

 branches of the family, and by his tenantry and retainers, quite in 

 the old feudal style. All members of the family use the name of 

 the estate as a prefix to their surname. On leaving the valley of 

 the Hernad, we passed over a high plateau near Poprad, which 

 drains, on one side, by way of the Hernad, Tisza, and Danube, into 

 the Black Sea ; and on the other, by some streams which we 

 crossed, into the Vistula, and thence to the Baltic. From near 

 this point we had hoped to see the splendid view of the highest 

 peaks of the Carpathians, which, at a distance of nine miles from 

 the railway, rise to an elevation of nearly 9000 feet ; but, unfortu- 

 nately, the hills were covered with clouds, under which we could 

 barely distinguish some patches of snow. We were sorely tempted 

 to stop at Poprad, for the sake of paying a visit to the celebrated 

 ice-cave at Dobsina, and also at Csorba to see the lake ; but our 

 time was very limited, and we had not been able to include even 

 this, much less the longer tour from Poprdd through the high 



