24-l< Ten Years of rtiy Life. 



As it was inconvenient to walk every day to Rorschach for 

 our meals, though the distance from Wiggen would be con- 

 sidered trifling in a city, we commenced housekeeping in the 

 castle. It is true the cooking apparatus of centuries ago was 

 very insufficient, but we had all been used to camp life, and 

 found it not very difficult to put up with little imperfections 

 and simple tare. 



A few minutes walk brought us to the bank of the lake, 

 where we made friends with a gardener who had charge of an 

 extensive villa, belonging to some Stuttgart gentleman, and 

 were allowed the use of the bathing-house, which was indeed a 

 great comfort. A bath in the Lake of Constance is indeed a 

 treat. Though it is the largest of the Swiss lakes, it is only a 

 pond in comparison with our American lakes. In fine wea- 

 ther one can see every house in Friedrichshafen on the Wur- 

 tenibergian shore, though the steamer requires an hour and a 

 half for the passage. Still it is beautiful, and one does not 

 tire of looking on its ever-changing surface. Now it is as 

 blue as an Italian lake ; in the next quarter of an hour it is 

 green, which is its most usual colour, shaded off from emerald 

 green to the darkest hue. A land-scape painter could not 

 find anywhere a more favourable place for studying water and 

 sky than at the windows of our bright and pleasant room. 

 Small as the lake appeared to me, in stormy weather it can 

 assume quite a formidable aspect and foam like the sea. Skip- 

 pers say that it is dangerous, and accidents to ships are by nib 

 means rare. Some years ago one of the largest steamers was 

 wrecked close to the port of Rorschach. 



It is plainly to be seen where the Rhine enters the lake, and 

 the course of the river is still to be traced a great distance. 

 The place near the entrance of the Rhine is rather ill-reputed, 

 on account of an eddy making it dangerous to inexperienced 

 boatmen. Salm went one morning out fishing alone in a 

 small boat, with nothing but a piece of bread and a small flask 

 in his pocket. Knowing that he was a very persevering sports- 

 man, I did not wonder at his not being back to dinner ; but 

 when, late in the afternoon, he still had not returned, and our 

 glasses swept the lake in vain, looking out for his boat, we all 

 became alarmed and afraid of some accident, though the wea- 

 ther was fine and the lake like a mirror. At last he arrived 

 but utterly exhausted and in a pitiful state. His face was 



