248- FROM THE PASSAGE OF MOUNT H.EMUS, 
blossoms Beyond this pleasing- prospect we; 
beheld the Danube, which is here two miles 
wide ; but it had not the appearance we ex- 
pected at this distance from its source: its 
jShores are low and mean, without the slightest 
feature of sublimity : the channel is filled with 
a number of shallows and paltry denuded 
islets, which, by dividing the current, diminish 
its grandeur. Those who form their ideas of 
the majesty of the Danube from, the extent of its 
course, will, perhaps, in no part of its channel, 
find them realized by viewing the torrent. The 
author may, perhaps, be considered as in some 
measure qualified to give a faithful description 
of this river ; having visited the principal parts 
of it, from its source to its embouchure. It is 
almost always yellow with mud ; and, through-* 
out its whole course, its sands are auriferous ;, 
but, in dignity and sublimity of scenery, it can, 
nowhere be compared, either with the Rhine, or 
with those magnificent rivers which fall into 
the north of the Gulph of Bothnia ; or with 
the Severn, or even with any of the principal 
pellucid waters of Wales. As we descended 
towards its banks, we arrived at the entrance 
of the town of Rustchuk; fortified with ram- 
parts, and a fosse with drawbridges. It con- 
tains twenty thousand houses ; seven thousand 
