AUSTEIA ON THE DANUBE. 



31 



at the island upon which rise the ruins of Werfenstein are known as the Strudel ; 

 but the dangerous whirlpools {Wirbeî) lower down, which bargemen never 

 ventured to cross without saying their prayers, exist no longer, the rock which 

 caused them having been removed in 1859, and its fragments employed in 

 embanking the river. At the ruined castle of Diirrenstein, the place of captivity of 

 Richard Cœur- de-Lion, the Danube escapes from this gorge. It spreads freely 

 over the plain, enclosing between its branches numerous verdure-clad islands, or 

 Auen. Some of the old or dead arms of the river have become swamps fringed by 

 reeds, the favourite haunts of water-fowl. In these parts of the vallej' man has 

 not yet issued victoriously from his struggles with the river. Wild animals still 

 abound there ; and even the beaver, which has disappeared everywhere else in 



Fig. 18. — The Dan'ube at Grein. 

 Scale 1 : 112,000. 



F..of Gr. 



i4°5o 



2 Miles. 



Germany, still inhabits these old arms of the Danube. Still considerable progress 

 has been made. Many of the " dead " arms of the river have been converted into 

 meadows, embankments have been constructed, and the quiet beauty of these 

 works of man ampl}^ compensates for the savage picturesqueness which it sup- 

 plants. The alluvial tracts of this plain are of exceeding fertility. The Mann- 

 hardtsberg, the last promontory of the Moravian plateau, is seen far to the north, 

 rising above the verdant plain, but the wooded spurs of the Alps on the right 

 hand approach close to the river ; and just above Vienna the range known as the 

 Wiener Wald forces the Danube to make a wide détour to the north. Below these 

 hills the river expands, and traverses an ancient lake basin, upon the margin of 

 which rises Vienna with its suburbs. The plain which extends to the south of the 

 Danube is partly covered with shingle, but upou the whole it is well cultivated, 



