The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-11-10

his chieftain. But the legends of the Rhine pay little regard to the truth of history and they are permeated with anachronisms. According to the Rhin- ish traditions Roland survived the bat tie of Roncevalle, though his sweet heart had been told that he was dead. Resolved never to marry, the maiden entered a convent upon the banks of tho Rhine. When Roland returned home and was made acquainted with what she had done, he built castle on the opposite bank of the river and perched it as high up on the cliff as he could in order to enable him to over look the convent wall and catch an occasional view of his. sweetheart in the garden Thus he dwelt for years. but one morning he saw a procession of runs in the convent garden following 9 coffin and his sweetheart was not in the procession. Then Roland knew she was no more and he is said to have died of broken heart. Those few re- raaining stones of Rolandsec are still pointed out as attesting the truth of this romantic story.
 It has always been singular to me that the beauties of the Elbe were not more familiar to the travelling public and that trip upon it's waters was not piore frequently included in the itin- erary of Americans. It is lovely stream and it is growingly becoming customary for tourists from Prague to Dresden to quit the railway train at Aussig and take the boat down the Elbe to the latter city.
 The river for a considerable distance of It's course traverses a plain of great width but dotted with a number of isolated high round hills, the apices of which are so level that it is almost im- possible to believe that their shape is not due to the work of man. Upon some of the hills are located solitary castles and often small villages, giving the landscape a most peculiar and charming aspect.
 The Achief attraction of the river, however, is a strangely fashioned and grotesque rock formation, known as Bastei.
 The banks here become tall cliffs, towering hundreds of feet into the air and running at the top into serrated points somewhat after the fashion of the tro1dtinder of Norway. These peaks are round as a tower and as pointed as a church. spire. Indeed, one of them is called the Prebisthor (priest's tower) and the pipnacles are connected with swinging iron bridges. Man has lent his aid and cunning to further the vagaries Of nature, and where huge clefts are found in the rock the space has been utilized for the fash ioning of flights of stone steps cut in the living rock The rocks themselves present a most fantastic contour and some of the most salient points bear close resemblance to the outlines to the human visage. They have been photo eraphed in such a manner that the spectator beholds woman fashioned out of stone.
 So tenaciously do some of the rivers cling to their characteristics that they are loath to part with them or even share them with another stream. This tenacity of temperament often causes a peculiar condition when the waters blend as is the case with the Arye and the Rhone at their conjunction just !. r.ile above Geneva. The Rhone is glacier born and comes sweeping down the valley, its waters white, cold. wild and turbulent indicative of the ice which gave them birth. The Arve is mild and of a ceruloan hue. It courses the lovely vale of Chamonfx and seems to have borrowed and clung to the color scheme of that incomparable valley When the two rivers meet and become one each retains for some dis tance its respective hue, so that the be- holder views a rarticolored stream, one half of which is blue and the other white.
 Other rivers are also identified with characteristic color; thus the Tiber 10 yellow and the Arno Is green; the Nile is blue and the Jordan gray; the Phar- par shimmers with an opalescent tinge and the volga is steel-hued: the Vis- tula is brown and the Ruama golden, each possessing hue that 1t never aoosss.