AGRICULTURE OX THE RHINE. 77 



boundless to the view, covering the bases of the craggy 

 ranges, especially to the right, where their dark shadow- 

 ing from an elevated point can be followed until all 

 merges into indistinct grey. Through one of these fo- 

 rests, "the Wood of Flamersheim," so called from a 

 neighbouring hall with knightly privileges, the road to 

 Miinstereifel, or the Minster of the Ardennes (in Ger- 

 man JEifel), conducts the traveller. A walk or drive of 

 about fifteen miles has transported him from a sunny 

 corn-growing plain, into a wild' mountainous region, 

 whose ancient evil repute is still curiously attested by 

 the pains every one in the towns and villages through 

 which he passes takes to assure him that they do not be- 

 long to the Eifel. And yet in times when the lowlands 

 where the object of knightly ravage, these barren heights 

 were tenanted by noble families ; and to judge by the 

 respectable appearance of the Jesuits' Convent at 

 Miinstereifel, as well as by the name of the place itself, 

 they were not so poor as to be despised by the Church. 

 Miinstereifel is situated on the little mountain brook 

 called the Erft, which, from the damage its waters occa- 

 sion, is called the '^ wilde Erft," and its story gives occa- 

 sion to notice one of the remarkable phenomena which 

 are almost peculiar to Germany, or at least to Central 

 Europe, and some of the causes of which have latterly 

 been systematically calculated by agricullurists. The 

 sudden rise of craggy summits amidst extensive plateaux 

 and wide spreading plains, probably occasions a resistance 

 to the clecti'ical streams circulating in the atmosphere, 

 which collect around them until an explosion takes place, 

 such as is rarely known in Western Europe. The " Cloud- 

 break " (Wolkenbruch) is the name given in Germany to 



