GRAND PANORAMA. 



531 



for the atmosphere was very clear, and the outlines 

 of even the most distant ranges were clearly de- 

 fined against the blue sky. At our feet lay the 

 Karls Eis-feld, a vast waste of glacier-ice, which 

 formed a striking contrast to the sombre-looking 

 rocky precipices that inclosed it, or the dense 

 forests of dark fir, from amidst which towered 

 gigantic snow-clad peaks. To the northward were 

 the lakes of Hallstadt, Aussee, and Grundelsee, the 

 peak of the Knippenstein, and the Traunstein and 

 Shafberg in the distance ; to the eastward rose the 

 Kammer mountain and the Hohe Gjadstein ; to 

 the south were the Gosau lakes, the valley of the 

 Enns, in which the river was seen for miles, glis- 

 tening in the sun like a silver thread, the Ritter- 

 stein peak, and range upon range of the Styrian 

 Alps ; and to the westward, in the foreground, was 

 the Hohe-kreutze ; whilst, stretched out in the 

 distance, were the Tannen Giberge, the peak of 

 the Ewiger Sehnee, the Steinernes-meer, and the 

 treble-headed Watzmann, which towers over the 

 Konigsee in the Berchtesgaden. There is an 

 intense fascination in such scenery, where all is 

 2 M 2 



