THE TOWN-WOODS OF CARLSBAD (BOHEMIA). 153 
the upkeep of which there is a special annual allotment of 
about £1660. These foot-paths are so arranged as to provide 
suitable and agreeable promenades for all classes of cure-guests, 
who can thus have ample choice between almost level tracks, 
or gently sloping ascents, or steep braes that make the stout 
and unwieldy go panting and “ larding the lean earth” in putting 
in the daily amount of exercise prescribed by their physician. 
And, of course, wherever there is an abrupt precipice, or any 
knoll from which a fine view is obtainable, paths lead in various 
directions up to it, and benches or a look-out tower command 
the panorama. All over the woods comfortable benches provide 
resting-places at convenient distances, while finger-posts indicate 
the points towards which the paths lead. And at main crossing- 
points there are large, well-built shelters, offering good protection 
from rain. In each of such shelters hangs a large map of the 
woods, showing all the net-work of roads, paths, etc., and 
indicating plainly the point at which the wayfarer now finds 
himself. There is thus no fear of anyone losing himself; but 
to make sure assurance doubly sure, the woods are, from about 
Io A.M. onwards, well patrolled by guards in uniform, who are 
in attendance in the early morning at the mineral springs before 
entering on their other daily routine in the woods. These 
56 miles of foot-paths afford such an immense variety of 
woodland scenery, that even the cure-guest staying for the full 
term of four weeks need have no feeling that he is following 
a familiar or monotonous path. He can vary his walks day 
by day, ever enjoying new beauties of nature assisted by 
art, while deriving pleasure and instruction from the manifold 
and ever-varying scenes that disclose fresh beauties and interest 
at every turn of a path. Long lonely walks along such paths 
can never be tedious to those able to hold silent commune 
with the trees around, and every group seems to have its own 
story to tell to those who seek for and take note of it. 
These woods are just as interesting to the forester as to the 
simple lover of woodland beauty on its own account. Here a 
big patch of old Scots pine, thin in the crown and carpeted with 
heather below, among which sturdy beech-saplings have recently 
been set about 8 or ro feet apart, tells how, from one cause 
or another, the crop has been allowed to get so thin that the 
soil has deteriorated; and now the kindly aid of the beech, 
“the mother of the woods,” has been invoked to nurse it back 
