Round About the Carpathians | Page 2

XXXI.
Skating--Death and funeral of De��k--De��k's policy--Uneasiness about the rise of the Danube--Great excitement about inundations--The capital in danger--Night scene on the embankment--Firing the danger-signal--The great calamity averted 321
CHAPTER XXXII.
Results of the Danube inundations--State of things at Baja--Terrible condition of New Pest--Injuries sustained by the island garden of St. Marguerite--Charity organisation 335
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Expedition to the Marmaros Mountains--Railways in Hungary--The train stopping for a rest--The Alf?ld--Shepherds of the plain--Wild appearance of the Rusniacks--Slavs of Northern Hungary--Marmaros Szigeth--Difficulty in slinging a hammock--The Jews of Karasconfalu--Soda manufactory at Boeska--Romantic scenery--Salt mines--Subterranean lake 339
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Tokay district--Visit at Schloss G------Wild-boar hunting--Incidents of the chase 355
CHAPTER XXXV.
Tokay vineyards--The vine-grower's difficulties--Geology of the Hegyalia--The Pope's compliment to the wine of T��llya--Towns of the Hegyalia--Farming--System of wages at harvest--The different sorts of Tokay wine 364
Map of the Banat and Transylvania with Mr Crosse's route.

ROUND ABOUT THE CARPATHIANS.
CHAPTER I.
Down the Danube from Buda-Pest--Amusements on board the steamer--Basiash--Drive to Oravicza by Weisskirchen--Ladies of Oravicza--Gipsy music--Finding an old schoolfellow--The czardas.
One glorious morning in June 1875, I, with the true holiday feeling at heart, for the world was all before me, stepped on board the Rustchuk steamer at Buda-Pest, intending to go down the Danube as far as Basiash.
Your express traveller, whose aim it is to get to the other end of everywhere in the shortest possible time, will take the train instead of the boat to Basiash, and there catch up the steamer, saving fully twelve hours on the way. This time the man in a hurry is not so far wrong; the Danube between Buda-Pest and the defile of Kasan is almost devoid of what the regular tourist would call respectable scenery. There are few objects of interest, except the mighty river itself.
Now the steamer has its advantages over the train, for surely nowhere in this locomotive world can a man more thoroughly enjoy "sweetly doing nothing" than on board one of these river-boats. You are wafted swiftly onward through pure air and sunshine; you have an armchair under the awning; of course an amusing French novel; besides, truth to say, there is plenty to amuse you on board. Once past Vienna, your moorings are cut from the old familiar West; the costumes, the faces, the architecture, and even the way of not doing things, have all a flavour of the East.
What a hotch-potch of races, so to speak, all in one boat, but ready to do anything rather than pull together; even here, between stem and stern of our Danube steamer, are Magyars, Germans, Servians, Croats, Roumanians, Jews, and gipsies. They are all unsatisfied people with aspirations; no two are agreed--everybody wants something else down here, and how Heaven is to grant all the prayers of those who have the grace to pray, or how otherwise to settle the Eastern Question, I will not pretend to say.
Meanwhile the world amuses itself--I mean the microcosm on board the steamer: people, ladies not excepted, play cards, drink coffee, and smoke. There is a good opportunity of studying the latest Parisian fashions, as worn by Roumanian belles; they know how to dress, do those handsome girls from Bucharest.
When steam navigation was first established on the Danube, as long ago as 1830, Prince Demidoff remarked, that "in making the Danube one of the great commercial highways of the world, steam had united the East with the West." It was a smart saying, but it was not a thing accomplished when the Prince wrote his Travels, nor is it now; for though the "Danube Steam Navigation Company" have been running their boats for nearly half a century, they are in difficulties, "chiefly," says Mr R��vy,[1] "from the neglect of all river improvements between Vienna and Buda-Pest, and between Basiash and Turn-Severin." He goes on to say that the dearest interests of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy are involved in the rectification of the course of the Danube, recommending a Royal Commission to be appointed. Those who follow the course of the river may see for themselves how little has been done, and how much remains to be done before it can be safely reckoned one of the great commercial highways of the world.
We had started from Buda-Pest on Monday morning at seven o'clock, and arrived at Basiash at nine the following morning. We were fortunate in not having been detained anywhere by shallow water, so often the cause of delay by this route.
Up to the present time Basiash is the terminus of the railway; it is a dep?t for coal brought from the interior, and though not out of its teens, is a place fast growing into importance.
As my object was to get to Oravicza in the Banat, I had done with the steamboat, and intended taking the rail to my destination; but, in the "general cussedness" of things, there turned out to be no train