82 



AUSTEIA-HUNGART. 



Fig. qI. — The Dkave axd the Danube. 



5 30 E Ot P 



tion and reconstruction are ever at work. At one point the current undermines 

 the banks, and sweeps away the débris, which it deposits again lower down. 

 Islands, which in course of time become covered with willows and poplars, are 

 formed in one part of the river, and washed away in the other. Shallow channels 

 ramify in all directions, and we wonder how the pilots can pick their way in 

 this labyrinth. The houses on the banks are hardly visible amongst the trees 

 which surround them, and sometimes, when we approach clusters of floating mills 

 anchored in the stream, we fancy that the river population is more numerous than 



that of the land. Large herds of 

 cattle are seen to wander over the 

 marsh lands bordering upon the 

 river, swarms of aquatic birds rise 

 from cane - brakes, and swallows 

 build their nests where the banks are 

 steep. 



Immediately after having passed 

 through the Hungarian Gate, be- 

 tween the Alps and the Carpathians, 

 the Danube divides into numerous 

 branches, forming a labyrinth of 

 islands collectively known as Schiitt 

 in German, andCzallokoz in Magyar, 

 the latter name signifying "deceitful 

 island," probably with reference to 

 the changes perpetually going on. 

 These islands are an ancient lake 

 delta of the river, and between the 

 mouth of the Vag and the fortress 

 of Komarom (Comorn), at their 

 lower end, they cover an area of 

 COO square miles. 



Below Comorn the Danube once 

 more flows in a single bed, and 

 then engages in the narrow gorge 

 formed by the mountains of Pilis 

 and NoOTad (Novio:rad). This de- 

 file, which connects the plain of 

 Pressburg with the great plain of Hungary, is historically of considerable 

 importance. Here, on a promontory, rise the ruined towers of Visegrad, a for- 

 tress in which was kept the crown of St. Stephen ; there, too, rose the magnificent 

 palace of Matthias Corvinus. Buda-Pest, the twin capital of all Hungary, has been 

 built not far below it. At Visegrad the Danube abruptly sweeps round to the 

 south, and it maintains this direction until it is joined by the Drave, when it as 

 abruptly resumes its easterly course. The Danube, a more considerable river now 



