e Traun and his
tributary the Ischl, while the little town of Ischl lay in the centre.
Within a few years this has become a very fashionable bathing place, and
the influx of rich visitors, which in the summer sometimes amounts to
two thousand, has entirely destroyed the primitive simplicity the
inhabitants originally possessed. From Ischl we took a road through the
forests to St. Wolfgang, on the lake of the same name. The last part of
the way led along the banks of the lake, disclosing some delicious
views. These Alpine lakes surpass any scenery I have yet seen. The water
is of the most beautiful green, like a sheet of molten beryl, and the
cloud-piercing mountains that encompass them shut out the sun for nearly
half the day. St. Wolfgang is a lovely village in a cool and quiet nook
at the foot of the Schafberg. The houses tire built in the picturesque
Swiss style, with flat, projecting roofs and ornamented balconies, and
the people are the very picture of neatness and cheerfulness.

We started next morning to ascend the Schafberg, which is called the
Righi of the Austrian Switzerland. It is somewhat higher than its Swiss
namesake, and commands a prospect scarcely less extensive or grand. We
followed a footpath through the thick forest by the side of a roaring
torrent. The morning mist still covered the lake, but the white summits
of the Salzburg and Noric Alps opposite us, rose above it and stood pure
and bright in the upper air. We passed a little mill and one or two
cottages, and then wound round one of the lesser heights into a deep
ravine, down in whose dark shadow we sometimes heard the axe and saw of
the mountain woodmen. Finally the path disappeared altogether under a
mass of logs and rocks, which appeared to have been whirled together by
a sudden flood. We deliberated what to do; the summit rose several
thousand feet above us, almost precipitously steep, but we did not like
to turn back, and there was still a hope of meeting with the path again.
Clambering over the ruins and rubbish we pulled ourselves by the limbs
of trees up a steep ascent and descended again to the stream. We here
saw the ravine was closed by a wall of rock and our only chance was to
cross to the west side of the mountain, where the ascent seemed somewhat
easier. A couple of mountain maidens whom we fortunately met, carrying
home grass for their goats, told us the mountain could be ascended on
that side, by one who could climb _well_--laying