514 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



main branch of the Danube, opposite the famous 

 battle-ground of the March-feld, where a larger 

 steamer bound for Passau was waiting for us. I 

 shall not attempt to describe the voyage, as it 

 would take volumes to depict the magnificent 

 scenery of this noble river, which is far grander 

 and more picturesque than the much-vaunted 

 Khine. We passed numberless relics of bygone 

 ages, and amongst them the castle of Diirrenstein, 

 where Kichard Coeur de Lion was confined. Little 

 now remains but a square keep surrounded by 

 battlemented walls, although from the ruins it 

 seems at one time to have been a place of con- 

 siderable importance. The living was very good 

 on board the steamer, and the captain, a very 

 intelligent man from Eatisbon, gave me much 

 valuable information about the dififerent places we 

 passed. Upon leaving Vienna it was my intention 

 to have gone up the river as far as Passau, and 

 then to have returned to Engelhardzell, on the 

 confines of Austria and Bavaria, I having a letter 

 to the head forester of that place ; but I heard such 

 a poor account of the game that I determined to 



