The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-02
DOWN THE DANUBE IN A CANOE
Episodes in the Summer Trip Of TWO
 Englishmen

Linz. the capital of Upper Austria. Below it the Traun and the Ems flowed in. and the Danube became 8 magnificent river rolling through broad banks alternately wooded and covered with crops and orchards; and now, too, we begin again to see vineyards, or which Bavaria had seemed bare.
 For long time, strange as It may sound, we had been enforced Vegetarl- ans and drinkers of condensed mix. | We could rarely get fresh milk, though we trudged many mile to farm houses and inns for it; either it was all used i for butter or had already been sent to | the towns Of course it would not Keep sweet in our canoe under the blazlng heat and we could only trust to the chance of getting it an hour or so before we needed it. But when we were lucky enough to get it, how delicious were those nesses of boiled bread and milk! Meat, too, was hard to come at, except at certain hours. The butchers in the small towns open their shops at certain times only. Not one of them would ever trouble himself to supply us with merely a pound of meat, and more would not, of course, keep fresh.
 l We were drawing near Vienna now, but first we passed through another fine l gorge. It began at Greln (where the duke of Coburg's castle, Greinburg, looks down from the heights) and be- | fore we emerged breathless at the other | end we had come through the famous whirlpools known as the Wirbel and Strudel The river, narrowed by half it's width, plunged with many contor- tions round sharp corners, between high cliffs and past the island-rock Of Worth Rising in long. heaving undu- lations. the water was alive with whirl- pools, twisting and sucking, and throw ing us here and there, gushing up un- derneath us with ugly noises and seeth- ing on every side. There was no foam, no crests, no waves or spray; 1t was like a monstrous snake trying to, wrlthe through a hole too small for 1t. The shore raced by at top speed, and steer ing was uncomfortable for time. In former years these whirlpools were a source of great danger to the naviga- ton; but in 1866 the emperor had cer- tain rocks blown up, and now an m scription on the face of the cliff testl- fes to the thanks of a grateful people. The traveller in a big steamer might think this description exaggerated. He would not think so in canoe.
 It is impossible to mention, as one would like, all the abbeys, churches, monasteries, ruins, islands and other points of historic interest that throng the banks. The scenery is enchanting as we'll as enchanted. There were some interesting castles in these mountains, and grim they still look, even in their ruins. Aggstein rose in solitary gran deur on a peak that commanded miles of the Danube in both directions. It was built in the twelfth century by the Kuenings. robber race which stretched chains across the river, plum dered the traffic and drowned the own CTS. We could still see the Blashaus tower. from which the sentinel an nouneed the approach of boats. It was plunderng, murdering family and was finally destroyed by the great Ul- rich von Grafeneck
 Before Ybbs (the Roman Pons Isidis) we saw the wonderful ruins of Duren- stein. where Richard Occur de Lion was imprisoned. Here, on the very spot, it was interesting to recall how he was recognized when walking through the fields at Erdberg (since merged In vien- na). captured and handed over to his enemy Duke Leopold of Austria, who intrusted him in turn to the keeping of the Kuenngs. Theyt kept him for fif- teen months Q193) in the great castle of Durrenstein, beneath whose grim walls we passed in our canoe. In Austria the story is implicitly believed, whatever we may think of it in England.
 The following day we saw the blue hills of the Wiener Wald rising behind Vienna, and before long we were obliged to don our best clothes, anc send a porter down from our hotel tt fetch the luggage from the bathing house where the canoe lay below the Reichsbrucke.
 We did not stay long in Vienna Rooms in July seem stuffy after tent and a spotted ceiling is poor sub stitute for the stars.
 The canoe was packed full of provi- sions ready to start when our first ac- cident occurred. The river had risen g couple of feet and was very swift. My friend had just taken off his shoes anc placed them on the top of the other luggage. Several of the crowd in theil misguided fashion were trying to her us when I stepped into the little space vacant for me in the stern. How il happened no one knew some one let gt too soon, and she was instantly swept out sideways into the current. The next second l was dropped out neatly
 into five feet of water, and the canoe settling till only the tops of the luggage remained in sight, went full tilt doWr stream. There were fifty yards of cleal water, and then came a row of barge: tied ten feet from the shore and leaving an inner channel. Into this the canoe luckily was swept; had she careered of
 into mid-stream probably we should never have seen her again. With boat hooks and poles we ran along the banks to catch her before she banged into tho barges My friend ran in his socks The hotel porter, the bath-h house mar and dozen idlers all followed shouting different things at once. But the canoe ,and the mad current had the start o1 us Crash with q sound of rending splintering wood, she banged into the nearest barge and turned completely over A few seconds later the various articles appeared on the surface again and there began sort of obstacle race that might have been highly comica had rot boap cn cariouS Ollr bnls