AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE. 119 



wooded heights, offering a great variety of mountain 

 scenery, at the bottom of which the river Sieg rolls its 

 rapid waters, forms a striking contrast both to the broad 

 valley of the Rhine and the narrow glens of the Ardennes 

 in its immediate vicinity. Hero the elevation of the 

 ground and the circumstance of our being on the north 

 side of the Westerwald, and consequently in a district 

 exposed to cold winds, with the slope of the hills quite 

 unfavourable for radiation of heat, forbid the cultiva- 

 tion of the vine, and render corn-crops precarious and 

 scanty. The stranger is however at no loss to explain the 

 number and good appearance of the villages through 

 which he passes, for the heaps of earth on the mountain 

 side and the open entrances to galleries carried from low 

 points into the hill-side, remind him at every turn that 

 he is traversing a mining district. In the districts of 

 Sayn and Siegen, that long were cut off from all easy 

 traffic with the Rhine for want of good roads, a remark- 

 able spirit of industry and an ingenuity worthy of admi- 

 ration has been displayed by the inhabitants that must 

 surprise all to whom the circumstances of these districts 

 are not known. There is perhaps no district in Europe 

 of which a minute history for the last three centuries 

 would be more useful and more entertaining. But the 

 people have been acting and not reasoning, and although 

 the age has in many respects run away from them, yet 

 they have a right to claim for past times an interesting 

 position very much in advance of their contemporaries. 

 Both in agriculture and in many branches of manufacture 

 the people of Siegen presented, until very recently, a 

 model for their neighbours. Their agriculture was of 

 course modified by the circumstances of the country, and 



