HUNGAEY. 89 



it would long ere this have been silted up, for the cavity which it occupies lies 

 about 50 feet lower than the bed of the Danube immediately to the north of it. 

 Its existence even now is intermittent, and occasionally it dries up altogether. If 

 an ancient document can be credited, the lake was first formed in 1300. In 1693, 

 in 1738, and in 1865 its waters evaporated, only a few swamps and quagmires 

 marking its site. The lake, in fact, is largely fed by the Danube. "When the 

 floods of that river are low for a succession of years, the Lake of Neusiedl dries up; 

 but when high floods occur, so as to force back the sluggish stream of the Ilansag, 

 which drains it, the lake fills again. It could be drained easily, but it is very 

 doubtful whether this would prove advantageous. The mud covering its bottom 

 contains much soda, and the fields surrounding it are largely indebted for their 

 fertility to the evaporation from its surface. Moreover, fine sand mixed with 

 crystals of salt would be blown over the fields if it were to be diained. The 

 insalubrious swamps of Hansag, which extend to the eastward of the lake, ought, 

 however, to be drained at once. The inhabitants who venture into this half-drowned 

 region fasten boards to their feet, to prevent sinking into the mud, and cover 

 the head and the face with weeds, as a protection against innumerable swarms of 

 flies. The remains of pile dwellings and stone implements have been discovered 

 in the mud of the Luke of Neusiedl. 



The Plain of Hungary. 



These two lakes are the only remnants of the vast sea which in a former epoch 

 covered nearl}' the whole of Hungary, and the ancient beach of which can still be 

 traced near the Iron Gate, at a height of 118 feet above the actual level of 

 the Danube. The alluvium which now fills the ancient lake bed varies in thick- 

 ness according to locality. Near Pest the old lake bottom is reached at a depth of 

 50 feet, but in the Banat borings of more than 500 feet have failed to attain the 

 live rock. It has been estimated that an area of nearly 40,000 square miles is 

 covered with alluvial soil, averaging 300 feet in depth. The mass of débris 

 washed down from the Carpathians has been triturated so finely that it would be 

 vain to search for a pebble. The weapons and tools found in the grave-hills of 

 the Tisza and its tributaries are made of bones and stag's horn, and not of stone, 

 as in other parts of Europe. 



The plain of Upper Hungary, lying between the Porta Hungarica and the 

 gorge of Visegrad, has long since lost its original physiognomy. The fertile plain 

 bounded by hills which lies to the north of the Danube fairly deserves its 

 epithet of " Garden of Gold," and nothing there reminds us of the steppes of 

 Asia or the savannahs of America. Hungarian " Mesopotamia," drained by the 

 Danube, the Tisza, and the Maros, however, in a large measure retains its primi- 

 tive features. To the Magyars this region is the Alfold, or Lowland, as distinguished 

 from the Felfold, or Upland. Its aspect is monotonous in the extreme. A height 

 of land, hardly perceptible to the eye, separates the Danube from the Tisza, but 

 elsewhere the horizon is broken onl^^ by ridges of drift sand and by a few hillocks, 



