98 Notes and Gleanings. 



the easiest and nearest route to the consumption of the West (a trade in former 

 as well as in latter times, a fertile source of great wealth) ; others from being 

 now emporiums where are collected many of the finest specimens of artistic 

 skill and excellence in some of the highest branches of human industry, and 

 large stores of mediaeval curiosities and antiquities in its various museums 

 liberally thrown open to all. 



Ample means of communication between the different parts of Germany are 

 afforded by the railways that pervade almost all parts of its territory, affording 

 also ready means of intercourse with the countries on its borders, and a transit 

 for the product of its different industries ; facilities for such purposes to which 

 some of its rivers, as the Rhine and the Elbe, contribute, such being navigable 

 to some extent for a considerable portion of their course. 



The character of the soil, of course, varies essentially, not only in different 

 parts of its territory, but even in districts of limited extent; in some places 

 stiff and clayey, in others sandy. In the wide plains at the northern part of the 

 country, a sandy soil seems to prevail ; though in this portion of it is to be found 

 a large extent of what by some is considered as being among the best corn land in 

 Europe. Taking it together, it seemed to me, as I passed rapidly over it, that 

 the prevailing character of the soil was that of a rather light loam, well suited 

 to the raising of grain and the usual agricultural crops. In some parts of Ger- 

 many, I have seen large beds of peat, that is, I suppose, used, where it exists, for 

 fuel ; as 1 have seen it cut and piled up to dry, as is done frequently in the United 

 States. 



Of the extensive forests that once covered much of Germany, but little re- 

 mains, I presume, now exist. There does not appear, however, any want of 

 wood, either as fuel for domestic purposes or other uses. The ranges of hills, 

 when too high, or not suited to cultivation, are usually covered with forests ; and 

 these are sometimes met with, to some extent, growing on ground of a different 

 character. Occasionally, fields, especially on sandy plains, are seen with a thick 

 growth of young spruce, apparently sown or planted ; these jjlantations usually 

 not large, although, sometimes, of considerable extent. The varieties of forest- 

 trees most frequently noticed are spruce, beech, and birch. The spruce strongly 

 resembles the Norway spruce, though not, 1 think, identical with it. In some 

 parts of Bavaria, I have seen villages consisting, apparently, of small houses 

 built entirely of wood, and sometimes barns constructed of the same material : 

 but this use of wood is rare ; the material used for building-purposes being 

 almost exclusively stone or brick, and this generally covered with stucco. 



In the southern part of Germany, the scenery is more varied and picturesque 

 than in the northern. The view here is sometimes over broad and wide level 

 plains : but there are more frequently hills covered with trees ; and the 

 country is not unfrequently rolling with swells of land, and the prospect diver- 

 sified. The cultivation, too, is perhaps of a less uniform character, and the 

 crops in greater variety. Instead of a great and almost unvarying extent of 

 wheat, rye, or oats, these are intermingled with fields of hops, tobacco, and 

 poppies, and orchards of apple and pear trees, with groves or avenues of wal- 

 nuts ; all tending to interrupt a uniformity that is apt to tire, and a monotony 



