86 M. Beudant's Travels in Hungary. 



though the principal of the sixteen free towns of Zips, and the 

 centre of the royal administration. 



It was about half a day's journey from Iglo to Mount Tatra, 

 which I meant to visit. On the way, I called at Gross Lom- 

 nitz, on M. Berzeviczy, for whom I had letters of recom- 

 mendation ; he received me in a manner most agreeable to 

 my feelings, and I had no little satisfaction in his society and 

 conversation. In countries so remote, and generally deemed, 

 though erroneously, only half civilized, in comparison of the 

 rest of Europe, to meet with a man so well informed, scientific, 

 and learned, was a source of high gratification. Before sup- 

 per we walked to the heights behind the castle, and had a 

 magnificent view of the Tatra. Its most acute cone, known 

 by the name of the Peak of Lomnitz, rises majestically, like a 

 nine-pin, above every object around it, and is about 5700 feet 

 above the plain that lies at its foot. It stands completely iso- 

 lated, and its flanks are marked by deep ravines, produced, in 

 1813, by a water spout that fell on the summit, unrooting 

 trees, dragging along enormous portions of rock, and hollowing 

 the soil to a great depth. The mountain of Tatra has been 

 described by geographers, as connected with others that 

 branch into Transylvania, but I had many proofs of the con- 

 trary. Though I did not scale the summit, I had opportuni- 

 ties of surveying it on every side. 



We set out from Lomnitz with very good horses, proceeding 

 in a straight line for the farm of the same name, and reached 

 it in about two hours. The lower parts of the rocks, as we 

 advanced, were partly cultivated with an indifferent kind of 

 oats, further on were meadow grounds, and at the farm appear 

 juniper and fir trees. Here we breakfasted, and leaving our 

 horses, set out on foot, with attendants that carried provisions 

 for a dinner. M. Fabritzi, the fiscal or steward of M. Ber- 

 zeviczy, would accompany me in this excursion, and this ren- 

 dered it doubly agreeable. We entered a valley called White 

 Waters, from the usual colour of its white muddy streams that 

 empty themselves into the White Lake. After two hours 

 march among rocks, we discover the elevated peaks, contigu- 

 ous to that of Lomnitz, which form the natural limits between 

 Hungary and Galicia. Here are varieties in the vegetation ; 

 those declivities of the mountains that are not too steep, ex- 

 hibited thick forests of different pines, with the sorbns aiicu- 

 paria, and the vaccinium uliginosum was in great abundance. 

 Approaching the White Lake, the vegetation grows more 

 scanty ; the other species disappear, and we find only the 

 pinus pumilio, the spreading branches of which form tufts that 

 are sometimes twenty feet in diameter. 



