hain-and-rope contrivances; the groves of old trees, with
broken walls and rude shrines, reminding one of Southern Italy and her
olives and ilexes; and the picturesque houses in Kochem, in Daun, in
Trarbach, in Bernkastel, which, however untiring one may be as a
sightseer, hardly warrant one as a writer to describe and re-describe
their beauties. Kluesserath, however, we must mention, because its
straggling figure has given rise to a local proverb--"As long as
Kluesserath;" and Neumagen, because of the legend of Constantine, who is
said to have seen the cross of victory in the heavens at this place, as
well as at Sinzig on the Rhine, and, as the more famous legend tells us,
at the Pons Milvium over the Tiber.

The Mosel wine-industry has much the same features as that of the Rhine,
but there is a great difference between the French wines, which are mostly
red, and the German, which are mostly white. Among the latter hundreds of
spurious, horrible concoctions for the foreign market usurp the name of
Mosel wine. It is hardly necessary even to mention the pretty names by
which the real wines are known, and which may be found on any wine-card at
the good, unpretending inns that make Mosel travelling a special delight.
The Saar wines are included among the Mosel, and the difference is not
very perceptible.

The last glance we take at the beauties of this neighborhood is from the
mouth of the torrent-river Eltz as it dashes into the Eifel, washing the
rock on which stands the castle of Eltz. The building and the family are
an exception in the history of these lands: both exist to this day, and
are prosperous and undaunted, notwithstanding all the efforts of enemies,
time and circumstances to the contrary. The strongly-turreted wall runs
from the castle till it loses itself in the rock, and the building has a
home-like, inhabited, complete look; which, in virtue of the quaint
irregularity and magnificent natural position of the castle, standing
guard over the foaming Eltz, does not take from its romantic appearance,
as preservation or restoration too often does.

[Illustration: VIEW OF COBLENZ FROM PFAFFENDORF.]

Not far from Coblenz, and past the island of Nonnenwerth, is the old
tenth-century castle of Sayn, which stood until the Thirty Years' War, and
below it, quiet, comfortable, large, but unpretending, lies the new house
of the family of Sayn-Wittgenstein, built in 1848, where, during a stay at
Ems, we paid a visit of