The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Danube from the Black Forest to the Black Sea
Title: The Danube from the Black Forest to the Black Sea
Author: Francis Davis Millet
Illustrator: Alfred Parsons
Release date: May 16, 2020 [eBook #62150]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images available at The Internet Archive)
|
List of Illustrations (etext transcriber's note) |
THE DANUBE
FROM THE BLACK FOREST
TO THE BLACK SEA
BY
F. D. M I L L E T
AUTHOR OF “A CAPILLARY CRIME” ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY
THE AUTHOR AND ALFRED PARSONS
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.
—
All rights reserved.
Dichtend in die Wellen schau’,
Steigt beim blanken Mondenscheine
Auf die schmucke Wasserfrau
Aus der Donau
Aus der schönen, blauen Donau.”
—Beck.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER I | |
|---|---|
| The Black Forest—The Brigach and the Brege—The Highest Sources of the Danube—Journey thence from London—Villingen—Arrival at Donaueschingen—The Canoes and Outfit—Arbitrary Source of the Danube | Page I |
| CHAPTER II | |
| The Start—Swans and Spectators—The First Weir and First Luncheon—Society for the Preservation of the Banks of the Danube—Tuttlingen and Max Schneckenburger—First Public Performance at a Weir—First Night in Camp and a Spoiled Breakfast—Monastery of Beuron and its Monks—Crags and Castles | 15 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern—Nuns at Riedlingen—Haymakers and Haymaking—The Last Weir—A Vigorous Current—The Confluence of the Iller and the Danube—Ulm and the Danube Rowing Club—Start from Ulm—Appointment of Camp-finder | 32 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| Lauingen; Its Architecture and its People—Blenheim and Höchstädt—Donauwörth—Lumber-rafts and our Narrow Escape—Virtuous Vohburg—Roman Remains and one of the Scenes in the “Niebelungenlied”—Weltenburg Abbey—The Befreiungshalle and Kelheim—In Sight of Ratisbon | 46 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| Ratisbon; Its Architecture and its People—The Walhalla—The Plain of Straubing—A Summer Squall—A Typical Bavarian Farm-house—Visit to a Local Freight Flat-boat—Rowing Clubs at Deggendorf and at Winzer | 59 |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| Fourth of July at Passau—The Austrian Frontier—Through the Gorge in Rainy Weather—A Curious Ferry—A Brief Halt at Linz and a Camp at the Mouth of the Traun—Shooting the Rapids below Grein—Melk and the Pass below | 74 |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| Dürrenstein, the Dungeon of Richard Cœur de Lion—Ruins and Sentiment—A Gem of River Scenery—Canalization of the River—The only “Blue Danube”—Tulln and its Antiquities—Active River Commerce—Our Raftsmen Friends | 88 |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| Vienna; Its History and Characteristics—The Lia Rowing Club—Our Stay at Hainburg and Excursions in the Neighborhood—Theben, the Frontier Town of Hungary—A Model Postmaster | 102 |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| Pressburg and the River below—Monotony of Landscape and our Introduction to Dust and Mud—Gran; Its Situation and Attractions—Visegrád—Our Hospitable Reception—General Görgei—Our Reluctant Parting—Approach to Budapest—The First Accident to the Fleet—The Neptune Club—Gypsy Music | 119 |
| CHAPTER X | |
| Budapest almost our Capua—The Bridges and Baths—The Great Hungarian Plain—Cheery River Folk—Duna Földvár—A Surprise Picnic and a Severe Storm—In the Heart of Hungary—Mohács and a Veteran of Two Wars—Tokay and Patriotic Sentiments | 133 |
| CHAPTER XI | |
| The Franzens Canal between the Danube and the Theiss—A Heterogeneous Population—Monostorszég and a Peasants’ Dance—Curious Types and Costumes—A Spectacular Sunday—First Signs of Oriental Life | 151 |
| CHAPTER XII | |
| A Watermelon Metropolis—Our Fleet taken for Torpedo-boats—A Gypsy Queen—Peterwardein and Carlowitz—Busy Life on the Banks—In Sight of Belgrade—Evening in Camp—The Servian Frontier—Semlin and Belgrade—Oriental Characteristics and Modern Improvements—A Sculptor’s Paradise—An Unexpected Encounter | 164 |
| CHAPTER XIII | |
| Semendria and its Great Castle—Our Passports are Useless—Bazias and the Entrance to the Carpathians—The Emperor’s Birthday on a Gunboat—Castle of Golubáç—Drenkova and the First Rapids—Escape from a Whirlpool and a Dash through the Cataracts | 184 |
| CHAPTER XIV | |
| Improvements to Navigation—Rapids of the Jur—The Kasan Defile—Remarkable River Scenery—Trajan’s Tablet and Old Roman Roadway—Orsova and the Herkulesbad—Ada Kaleh, the Turkish Settlement—The Iron Gates—The Danube and the Ister—Origin of the Name of the Danube—We Lose our Admiral—The Iron Gates—Captured by Roumanian Soldiers—Under Military Supervision | 197 |
| CHAPTER XV | |
| We are Arrested in a Servian Militia Camp—Barbaric Soldiery and Strange People—We Surrender to a Roumanian Picket—A Characteristic Servian Village—The Frontier of Bulgaria | 211 |
| CHAPTER XVI | |
| Kalafat and Widdin—A Gale out of a Clear Sky—Bulgarian Fishermen—Widdin and its People—Quaint Turkish Sailing Craft—The River Landscape and the Bulgarian Villages—Custom-house Annoyances—Our Passports save us | 230 |
| CHAPTER XVII | |
| A Grazing Country—Wild-fowl in Abundance—Nicopolis and the First Reminder of the War of 1877-78—Exodus of Turks at Sistova—Trip to Plevna—Echoes of the War—Rustchuk and Silistria—Monotony and Mud | 247 |
| CHAPTER XVIII | |
| Squally Weather and Head-winds—The Dobrudscha—Trajan’s Great Wall—Our Camp is Besieged, but Peace is soon Declared—A Roumanian Village—Braila and Galatz—A Tribe of Gypsies | 267 |
| CHAPTER XIX | |
| The Danube Delta—The European Commission and its Work—Sulina, a Town on English Soil—We Enter the Territory of the Czar—The River divides and the Delta begins | 280 |
| CHAPTER XX | |
| We Fraternize with Russian Soldiers—A Night at a Picket Station—Custom-house Formalities at Ismail—We Encounter the Police—A Desolate Land—We Camp in the Mud—Kilia—Moldavian Peasants and Russian Pickets | 295 |
| CHAPTER XXI | |
| We reach Vilkoff and Renew our Struggles with the Custom-house—A Remote Town—The Sturgeon Fishery and Caviar—We Push on to the Black Sea—A Gale is Blowing, and We make a Landing with Difficulty—The Roumanian “Cordon”—A Paddle in the Black Sea—We dismantle our Canoes and reach Sulina | 312 |
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE DANUBE
FROM THE BLACK FOREST TO THE BLACK SEA
CHAPTER I
T the head of a pleasant little valley high up among the bristling mountain-tops of the Black Forest, a tiny stream of clear water comes tumbling down the rocks, and, gathering strength and volume from an occasional spring or a rivulet, cuts a deep channel into the rich soil of the hayfields, and dances along gayly over its bed of glistening pebbles. To the north, west, and south the bold summits of the water-shed, heavily clothed in dark masses of coniferous trees, make a rugged, strongly accentuated sky line, and to the east delightful vistas of sunny slopes and fertile intervales stretch away in enchanting perspective to the hazy distance. This little stream, the Brigach, with its twin sister, the Brege, which rises about ten miles farther to the south, are the highest sources of the mighty River Danube, the great water highway of Europe since earliest history, celebrated for ages in legend and song, gathering on its banks in its course of nearly two thousand miles to the Black Sea the most varied and interesting nationalities in the civilized world, and unfolding in its flow the most remarkable succession of panoramas of natural beauty known to the geographer. The Black Forest Railway, which crosses the mountains from the valley of the Rhine into the upper valley of the Danube by the way of Triberg, mounts the western escarpment of the range by a series of steep grades, curves, and short tunnels, in the midst of beautiful scenery of a semi-Alpine character, and, after the divide is reached, follows the course of the Brigach to Donaueschingen, a tidy little town in the Grand Duchy of Baden, usually called the source of the Danube, and, for the greater part of the year, the head of navigation for small boats on the upper river. A mile and a half below Donaueschingen the Brigach and the Brege join, and the stream here receives the name of the Danube.