Journey from Paris to Vienna. 37 



Hungary, a country but little explored by travellers, was an 

 object of curiosity, no less by its physical than its political 

 constitution. I had been several months accumulating, in 

 Paris, all the facts, details, and circumstances relating to Hun- 

 gary, that I could find in different authors, and the baron 

 Podmaniezkey, envoy from his apostolic majesty, with whom 

 I had become acquainted in Paris, furnished me with ample 

 instructions as to the interior of the country, the manners of 

 the inhabitants, and the ways of travelling in it. He had 

 pointed out all the little difficulties I might meet with, and by 

 letters of special recommendation to his relations and friends, 

 scattered over the country, had suggested the means of my 

 surmounting them. 



In general, my journey from Paris through Germany, to 

 Vienna, was rapid, and I had not much leisure to dwell on 

 intermediate objects. As a geologist, I observed large masses 

 of red free-stone, on both banks of the Rhine, which, indeed, 

 extend very far into Germany, and seem to connect with those 

 of the Duchy of Deux Pont. In many parts of the mountains 

 of the Black Forest, are depots of real pit coal. I crossed 

 those mountains by the valley of Kinzig, and visited, by the 

 way, the coal mines of Zunsweyer, which belong to M. Hecht, 

 of Strasbourg ; he accompanied me in the same. From Kehl, 

 along the banks of the Rhine to Offenburg, we have uniformly 

 a champaign country; we meet with no hills till a little before 

 we come to Schwarzwald. 



The entrance of the valley of Kinzig, which I passed, April 

 22d, 1818, exhibited a delightful spectacle, from the multitude 

 of fruit-trees loaded with flowers, whose colours, white, tinged 

 with green, contrasted agreeably with the dark green of the 

 pines that covered the tops of the mountains. About a league 

 above Gengenbach, the vegetation was not so agreeable to the 

 view, but the numerous habitations scattered about the gentle 

 declivities, exhibited animating attractions of another kind. I 

 had set out rather late from Zunsweyer, arid in order to sleep 

 at Wolfach, as 1 intended, was obliged to walk a little in the 

 night. Here I was gratified with another amusing prospect; 

 lights appeared in all the dwelling houses, and in the midst of 

 the profound darkness that overspread the heights, the valley 

 seemed illuminated, to a great distance, along its two sides. 

 The further end was enlivened by clouds of smoke and flame, 

 from the forges of Hausach, in the higher part of the valley. 



I passed the greater part of next day in viewing the geolo- 

 gical collections of M. Selb, and towards night had a guide to 

 Hornberg, where I could resume the post road. In the mid- 



