MODERN CARRIAGES. 359 



in that case the travellers had to admire as best they could 

 the walls of rock close to which they travelled. 



There were, nevertheless, some advantages on the score 

 of safety in these long narrow carriages, for they cleared one 

 another on the somewhat narrow mountain roads of Switzer- 

 land, and this is not always the case with the modern and wider 

 carriages now in common use in that country. 



When the Swiss engineers laid out the improved roads 

 of their country, they did not foresee that Switzerland would 

 sooner or later be compelled to move with the times, and to 

 bear on her roads the carriages of other countries, as well as 

 the little narrow ones common to their own, and the passing of 

 ordinary vehicles on the narrow mountain roads requires the 

 utmost care to avoid accidents. One hears of omnibuses, 

 diligences, private carriages, and carts toppling down the preci- 

 pices by reason of collisions, horses taking fright, jibbing, and 

 other causes, and fortunate are the occupants if they ever again 

 alive, or not seriously injured for life reach jhe road from 

 which they fell. 



Passing through the Engadine from St. Mauritz to Finster- 

 munz, and slowly climbing the mountain-side to the Austrian 

 territory at Nauders, after passing for many miles along the 

 narrow roads and tortuous narrow main streets of the Swiss 

 villages, one almost suddenly emerges on the wide and truly 

 imperial roads of Austria, laid out with a width, boldness, 

 and grandeur that are in great contrast to those left behind. 

 Perhaps (and probably) they are roads of a later date, and laid 

 out by men who were aware of the difficulties and dangers of 

 the adjoining narrower roads. 



A few words more, and we have done with the roads and 

 carriages of continental Europe. In Russia they have the 

 ' tarantass ' and the 'kibitka.' In Norway tourists travel in a 

 carriole that only carries one person, and has a board behind 

 for luggage, shafts for a hardy little horse, a pair of springs and 

 two wheels. 



The Irish, like the Swiss, have carriages unlike those of 



