CHAPTER V. 



All travellers that had a day or two to spare in ascend- 

 ing the Rhine used formerly to make an excursion from 

 Godesberg into the valley of the Ahr. Sin(.*e the esta- 

 blishment of the steam-boats, many of these side ex- 

 cursions are neglected, as being too tedious. The agricul- 

 turist does not measure the interest attaching to his tour 

 by its length, and in studying the remarkable contrast 

 offered by the Rhenish highlands to the plains we have 

 traversed, he will find a stay in the Ardennes well 

 worth his while. 



The hills that a little below Godesberg run out to the 

 Rhine, and with the chain of the Seven Hills opposite 

 form the boundary of what is so properly designated " the 

 Low Countries," are the eastern ramifications of the Ar- 

 dennes, the true and irremovable boundary between 

 France and Germany. Leaving Godesberg, the tourist 

 passes, at Vilip, on to the elevated plateau, whose vol- 

 canic origin is evident to the most superficial glance. 

 The rocky ground covered with a thin layer of earth, and — 

 where cultivation has fostered and increased its accumu- 

 lation — crops whose precarious appearance but too well 

 accounts for the poverty of the cultivators, present a 

 chilling foreground, behind which naked crags rise in 

 various elevations, darkly and cheerlessly crowned in the 

 distance by the summit of the Michelsberg. The middle- 

 ground of the picture is filled up by forests that seem 



