34 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



seems to be pretty well inhabited and somehow or in 

 some way the people must make a living.* 



Here and there a little forest of fir-trees made a wel- 

 come change during the monotonous trip. We passed 

 Nauen, Paulinenaue, Friesack, Neustadt an der Dosse, 

 Zernitz, Wilsnack, until we reached Wittenberge, which 

 has a branch custom-home, where all passengers and 

 goods coming from Prussia were requested to undergo 

 slight formalities without the annoyance of revision, how- 

 ever. After Wittenberge, the desert— for no other name 

 is applicable to this barren, desolate country, where the 

 eye can feast on nothing but shrubbery, mostly withered, 

 from which now and then you see a stunted fir-tree arise, 

 which casts its forlorn glance about for companionship, 

 for the old adage, "Misery loves company," seems to 

 find its echo even in the vegetable kingdom. 



As if we were to drink the cup to overflowing, it began 

 to rain in torrents right after we left Wittenberge and 

 nothing could have made this desert look sadder. When 

 we reached Boitzenburg, having passed Grabow, Lud- 

 wigslust, Hagenow in quick succession, the weather for- 

 tunately cleared up and gave us a chance to view this 

 pretty little town and its refreshing surroundings. Here 

 one obtains a good view of the low lands of the river 

 "Elbe," which is quite an agreeable change for the eye 

 of the lonely traveler. 



After Boitzenburg— another desert, until one reaches 

 Schwarzenbeck, which is situated on a hill. The moment 

 one arrives at this station everything seems to change as 

 if by magic. One may here behold a most picturesque 

 rural scene. Here and there a village with its friendly 

 church steeple, brooks winding in zig-zag lines through 

 the little valley. Little forests here and there, proud to 

 show off in their new spring coats, all of which combines 



*They do, by raising potatoes and grain for starch mills and 

 distilleries, and in later years, by raising sugar beets for export, 

 which is encouraged by a government premium, of which young 

 Lecouvreur had no knowledge at the time. — Transl. 



