The canton of Thurgovia, which occupies the S. shore of the lake from Constance to Arbon, is distinguished for its surpassing fertility. Instead of rocks and mountains, and alpine pastures, the characteristics of other parts of Switzerland, this canton presents richly-cultivated arable land, waving with corn and hemp; the place of forests is supplied by or chards; it is, indeed, the garden and granary of Helvetia. The country is at the same time thickly peopled, abounding in villages and cheerful cottages.

14 The nunnery of Münsterlingen, about 4 miles on the road, was suppressed in 1838, and converted into an hospital. The surviving sisters are allowed to occupy one wing of the building during their life-time.

2 Uttwyl.

After passing Romanshorn, a village, built on the point of a tongue of land, the E. end of the lake, with the distant Alps towering above it, comes into view. On the opposite shore of the lake is Friedrichshafen and the Villa of the King of Würtemberg, in which he usually passes a part of the summer. See HANDBOOK FOR SOUTH GERMANY.

2 Arbon, a walled town of 660 inhabitants, close upon the lake. The Romans, under Augustus, built a fort here, upon the high road from Augst and Windisch to Bregenz, which they called Arbor Felix. It was aban doned by them to the Allemanni in the 5th century. The Castle, on an eminence overlooking the lake, was built 1510, but its tower is said to rest on Roman foundations. The belfry, detached from the church, is boarded, not walled, on the side nearest the castle, in order that no force hostile to the lords of the castle should be enabled to shelter themselves in it, or annoy the castle from thence. The monk of St. Gall is said to have died at Arbon (640), and the place was a favourite residence of Conradin of Hohenstauffen.

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Travellers bound direct for Coire will proceed at once on to Rorshach, 2 posts from Hub (Route 67), while the road to St. Gall turns S.

A gradual, but long ascent, leads up-hill the whole way from the borders of the lake along a pleasing valley, near the upper end of which, 1000 feet above the lake of Constance, is situated.

23 St. Gall. - Inns: Hecht (Brochet), very good; Rössli (Cheval).

St. Gall, capital of the canton, is situated in an elevated valley on the banks of a small stream called the Steinach, and has a population of 10,333 souls. It is one of the principal seats of manufacturing industry in Switzerland. The manufacture of muslins, known as Swiss muslins all over Europe, is the most flourishing; but the spinning of cotton is also rapidly increasing. There are extensive bleacheries in the town, and the neighbouring slopes are white with webs.

The antique walls, however, which still surround the town, and the ditch, now converted into gardens, tell of a totally different period, and state of society, and recall to mind the ancient history of St. Gall. If we may believe the legend, it was in the early part of the 7th century that St. Gallus, a Scotch monk (? Irish), left his convent in the Island of Iona, one of the Hebrides, and, after travelling over a large part of Europe converting the heathens, finally settled on the banks of the Steinach, then a wilderness buried in primæval woods, of which bears and wolves seemed the rightful tenants rather than men. He taught the wild people around the arts of agriculture, as well as the doctrines of true religion. The humble cell which the Scotch missionary had founded became the nucleus of civilisation; and fifty years after his death, when the fame of his sanctity, and the miracles reported to have been wrought at his tomb, drew thousands of pilgrims to the

stetten, and thence to Milan by the Splugen and Bernardin.

The posting tariff for Canton St. Gall is given in the Introduction (§ 5.).

ROUTE 67.

ST. GALL TO COIRE, BY RORSCHACH, RHEINECK, ALSTETTEN, THE VALLEY OF THE RHINE, AND THE BATHS OF PFEFFERS.

=

8 St. Gall posts 61 Eng. miles. The Swiss posts along the S. and W. shores of the lake of Constance are considerably longer than the German posts.

This road is supplied with post horses (see Introduction, § 5). It is traversed by diligences twice a-day in 10 or 11 hours. Travellers posting should endeavour to reach Pfeffers in one day, as the intermediate stations are not good sleeping-places.

There is a direct and very interesting road, though hilly, from St. Gall to Alstetten, avoiding the detour by Rorschach and the lake of Constance, described in Route 68.. The pedes trian, with the aid of a guide, may reach Coire by Appenzell, crossing the mountains to Wildhaus (Routes 68 and 71.)

14 Rorschach-(Inn: Post; Krone, tolerable; Löwe). This little lakeport and town of 1650 inhabitants is the principal corn-market in Switzerland. The grain required to supply the greater part of the Alpine districts of N. Switzerland is imported from Suabia, in boats, across the lake, and is deposited temporarily in large warehouses here. Much muslin is made at Rorschach.

Steam-boats go daily between it and Friedrichshafen, in Würtemburg, and the steamers from Constance and Lindau also touch here regularly, corresponding with the diligences to Milan, Augsburg, Ulm, Stuttgard, and Munich. The deposits of the Rhine are, it is said, forming themselves into shallows between Rors

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chach and Lindau, which may soon impede the direct navigation of the lake between these two places. On the slope, a little above the town, is the large dilapidated building, called Statthaltery, or Marienberg, a palace once of the proud abbots of St. Gall, recently purchased by the government to convert into an Institut. It commands a fine view from its terrace. Near it, perched on a projecting sandstone rock, is the desolate Castle of St. Anne, with its square keep.

Skirting the foot of low hills clad with vineyards, beneath which the yellow-bellied pumpkins may be seen basking in the sun, the road passes along under the shade of fruit-trees, but soon quits the margin of the lake to cross the flat delta of the Rhine. The district around the mouth of the river abounds in marsh, and is by no means healthy.

-

1 Rheinegg Brochet (Inn: (post), clean, but dear; necessary to make a bargain ;) -a village of 1370 inhabitants, on the 1. bank of the Rhine, about 4 miles above its embouchure, situated under vine-clad hills, surmounted by a ruined castle, which was destroyed 1445 by the Appenzellers. There are several other castles on the neighbouring heights.

St. Margarethen, a pretty village completely embowered in a grove of walnut and fruit trees, is situated near the Austrian ferry, over the Rhine, which must be crossed in going to Bregenz or Lindau (see Hand-book for S. Germany); but it is not passable after dark. Our road leaves it on the 1., and turns soon afterwards due S. up the valley of the Rhine, through a highly culti vated country rich in grain, espe cially maize, and abounding in orchards. Only the low grounds on the immediate margin of the river are flat and unhealthy marsh, interspersed with gravel-beds, which the traveller should get over as fast as possible, on account of malaria. The Rhine here

is a wide, shallow, muddy, and unsteady stream, constantly changing its channel and overflowing its banks: it is not navigated except by wood rafts, which float down it.

13 Alstetten-Inns: Post; affords a good dinner, and bed, but the salle-à-manger is a sort of public taproom; Rabe, Corbeau, just tolerable,)

a village of 1815 inhabitants, in a fruitful neighbourhood. There is a road from this over the hill of Stoss to St. Gall, by Gais (Route 68); very steep, but quite practicable for light carriages. It takes two hours to reach the top. The view from it over the Alps of the Vorarlberg is fine, and the route interesting.

1 Sennwald-(Inn: Post, by no means first-rate, but tolerable). Down to the 17th century, the district which we now traverse belonged to the powerful barons of Hohen Sax, many of whose castles, reduced to ruins by the Appenzellers, may still be discerned upon the heights on the W. of the Rhine valley. One of this family, a brave and noble soldier and a Protestant, escaped with difficulty from the massacre of St. Bartholomew at Paris, and on his return home was murdered by his nephew. After this foul deed, it is the popular belief, that the blessing of God was withdrawn from the race: it is certain they never prospered. In 1616, their vast domains were sold to Zurich, and the family became extinct soon after. The body of the murdered man is still preserved in a perfect condition, in a coffin with a glass lid, dried like a mummy, under the church-tower of Sennwald. This circumstance, and the story connected with it, have given to the remains a reputation for sanctity; so that, though a Protestant, the Catholics have stolen some of the limbs as relics, and once actually carried off the body across the Rhine: it was, however, speedily reclaimed.

was

Werdenberg --(Inn; Post)the seat of a noble family of that

Ragatz.

name, who played an important part in early Swiss history. The Stammschloss, the cradle of the race, still stands in good preservation above the town. A cross road runs hence through the vale of Toggenburg, and past Wildhaus, to Schaffhausen (Route 71).

2 Sewelen, hence to Wildhaus is 2 posts, and to Mallenstadt, 2 posts.

Below Sargans (described in Route 14), which we pass a little on the rt., the roads from the Grisons, and from Zurich, meet that from St. Gall. 2 Ragatz (Inns Hof, Ragatz, originally the summer residence of the abbots, recently fitted up as a bathing establishment, and supplied with water from the hot springs of Pfeffers, conveyed hither in wooden pipes; very good accommodation. Charges fixed by the government of the canton. Table d'hôte at 12, 56 kr., dinner at other hours, in the salle, 1 fl. 40 kr., in a private room, 2 fl., wine not included. Breakfast, tea, or coffee, honey, bread, and butter, in the salle, 20 kr., in private, 24 kr. ; a wax light, 30 kr.; private baths, 30 kr.

There is accommodation for 80 persons in the house. Hotel de la Tamīna; Poste;) - Ragatz is a small village situated at the mouth of the gorge (tobel), through which the torrent Tamīna issues out to join the Rhine. It thrives from its centrical position at the junction of the great roads from Zurich, St. Gall, Feldkirch, Coire, and Milan, and from its vicinity to the mineral springs of Pfeffers, which cause it to be much resorted to as a watering place, especially since the gloomy and uncomfortable old baths have been supplanted by the cheerful new establish

ment.

No one should omit to visit the OLD BATHS OF PFEFFERS, situated a little way up the vale of the Tamīna, one of the most extraordinary spots in Switzerland, and now made accessible by a new road cut in the rocks of the

gorge. Small chars are kept to drive thither at the hotel, and the charge for one is 1 fl. 30 kr. The distance, not being more than 4 miles, is performed in of an hour, and it takes only 20 minutes to return. It is a delightful walk, the scenery very romantic; the torrent forming waterfalls at every step, and the logs of wood which are floated down afford a pleasing view.

Much of the interest

and original singularity of the spot, however, is destroyed by the improvement of the access to it.

The Baths are situated in two large piles of building connected together by a chapel. They are built on a narrow ledge of rock, a few feet above the roaring Tamīna, and so deeply sunken between the rocks that they may be said to be half buried; so that in the height of summer, the sun appears above them only from 10 to 4. They are large gloomy buildings, damp and not over clean, but afforded the only accommodation for bathing guests before the new establishment at Ragatz was built. There are rooms enough to receive between 200 and 300 persons. baths, 12 or 14 in number, are shallow wooden pans, designed for the reception of several persons at once, in chambers so filled with vapour that the patient is half-blinded on entering them. There are also private baths; both are supplied with a current of hot water, constantly running through them.

The

For

The hot springs of Pfeffers were not known to the Romans. There is a story that they were discovered by a hunter, who, having entered into the abyss of the Tamīna, in the pursuit of game, remarked the column of vapour arising from them. many years nothing was done to facilitate access to them, and patients desirous of profiting by their healing virtues were let down to the source from the cliffs above, by ropes, and, in order to reap as much benefit as possible, were accustomed to pass a

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week together, both day and night, in them, not only eating and drinking, but sleeping, under hot water, instead of under blankets. The cause of the virtue of the water is not very evident, as a pint contains scarcely 3 grains of saline particles; it has a temperature of about 98° Fahrenheit.

The situation of the baths is both gloomy and monotonous, hemmed in between dripping walls of rock, and shaded by dank foliage, with only a narrow strip of sky overhead, and without even space or facilities for locomotion and exercise, unless the patient will scale the sides of the valley above him. To one fresh arrived from the upper world, its meadows and sunshine, a visit to Pfeffers has all the effect of being at the bottom of a well or a mine. The atmosphere is kept at one regular temperature of chilliness by the perpetual draft brought down by the torrent; and the solitary and imprisoned ray of sunshine which about roon, and for an hour or two afterwards, finds its way into these recesses, is insufficient to impart warmth or cheerfulness. small terrace, 6 or 8 feet wide, close to the baths, is the only level space near them; if the sojourner wishes to walk he has no choice, but must begin to ascend. It is to be presumed, that few English travellers would be disposed to make any stay here. A passing visit of a few hours will satisfy the curiosity of most persons. No one, however, should depart without visiting the

Source of the hot spring.

A

A few yards above the bath-house, the sides of the ravine of the Tamina contract in an extraordinary manner, so as to approach within a few feet of each other; a little farther they even close over and cover up the river, which is seen issuing out of a cavernous chasm. A bridge of planks across the Tamīna leads to the entrance, which is closed by a door. The bridge is prolonged into the gorge, in the shape of a scaffolding