THE PROTEUS ANGUINUS.

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almost suppose, that this little creature first gave to Harvey the idea of the circulation of the blood.

On my return through Laybach, I was introduced to a gentleman who kept several in a large stone basin in his cellar; they had been already in confinement four or five years, and seemed very healthy, but diminished to half their natural size. The late Emperor of Austria caused a grotto to be made at Schönbrun, near Vienna, and peopled it with them, where they may be contemplated by those travellers whose curiosity will not lead them so far as their native streams'.

A promenade of about an hour through the forest took me from the Adelsberg Grotto to the famous castle called Schloss Lueg, the Poick and my guide being my only companions; the former, as usual, rapid and boisterous; and the latter, a genuine Wend, might have passed for a faun in his native woods. His attire was most primitive, being composed of a short tunic, made of coarse linen, (which also answered the purpose of shirt,) confined by a girdle of untanned leather, from which were suspended his hatchet, long knife, and tobacco pouch; very wide small clothes, that I at first took for a petticoat, only reached the knee; a pair of sandals, also of untanned leather, were the only additions to his costume: as for stockings and hat, they were evidently considered quite unnecessary; and his dark, curling hair, which hung over his neck

I have been purposely explicit in my details respecting these little reptiles, having known several gentlemen who brought them to England, but, for want of proper care, they all perished.

and shoulders, gave a most bandit expression to his thin, swarthy countenance; while the knotty club he carried in his hand, by whose assistance he bounded from crag to crag, with the agility of a chamois, would render him a formidable personage to the solitary traveller in the woods. Notwithstanding his very unprepossessing appearance, yet his countenance beamed with goodnature, which he repeatedly evinced; and when, at the close of the day, I rewarded him with a dollar and a supper, his expressions of gratitude were most fervent; he threw himself at my feet, kissed my hand, and appeared the happiest creature living.

But, to return to the castle I was in search of. After ascending to the summit of a high mountain, we beheld, surrounded by a colossal chain of perpendicular rocks, a deep abyss, in whose centre a rock, completely isolated, started up, and upon this is built the castle. The first idea that strikes us, on seeing it, is the difficulty, or rather apparent impossibility, of reaching it. This is accomplished by a flight of steps cut in the rock to two draw-bridges, for which wooden planks, thrown from rock to rock, are now substituted. A few rooms are still occupied by the verwalter, a government civil officer, but the greater part is a ruin, and appears one of the wildest situations that a mortal could possibly have selected for his residence; nature having destined it to be the retreat of the lammergeier, for I doubt if even the chamois could climb up its inaccessible cliffs. The castle, with the exception of a few turrets, is formed out of three natural grottos, one over the other; and, if we look upwards, around, or beneath, we perceive nothing but a chaotic mass of rocks, rendered still more frightful by the magical Poick, which here again makes its appearance, boiling with foam, in the abyss.

In the middle ages, this fastness was inhabited by a long succession of powerful robber knights, who practised their depredations with impunity upon their wealthy neighbours, the Venetians; all attempts to obtain possession of their strong hold were ineffectual, owing to its having a subterranean communication with an adjoining grotto, which extends more than a German mile into the neighbouring wood, and served as an en

trance to the lord of the castle and his band, when pursued. The entrance is now walled up, by order of the Austrian government.

The last knight who occupied this most romantic of all castles, was the Graf Erasmus von Lueger, whose ancestors resided here from time immemorial. Erasmus was a brave soldier, and distinguished himself as an officer in the imperial army, under the command of Marshal Pappenheim: however, a quarrel having ensued between them, he killed his general in the court-yard of the imperial palace, at Vienna. This atrocious act drew upon the mountain chief the vengeance of the emperor, who set a price upon his head; but this prize was easier for cupidity to wish for than to obtain, as he speedily retreated to the rocky fastness of his ancestors, and defied the whole force of the emperor. The fortress was regularly besieged, the surrounding cliffs, and every pass in the neighbourhood, were in the hands of the soldiers: in vain they blockaded, in vain they battered,—his castle was bomb-proof, and nobody but himself possessed the secret of the subterranean retreat, by means of which he procured provisions in abundance: thus the siege continued for more than a year, and there appeared not the slightest chance of reducing the brave chief, though his unerring aim caused many a daring soldier to bite the dust. At length, treachery effected what force was unable; for the commander of the besiegers having entered into a correspondence with his only inmate, a confidential servant, who had lived with

him from infancy, the traitor, by the promise of a large bribe, was won over to betray him. This he did by making a preconcerted signal, that revealed to the besiegers the moment when his master entered a particular turret, not bomb-proof, and which, by a welldirected fire of artillery, was shattered to pieces, and with it the unfortunate mountain chief, whose bravery deserved a better fate.

My last visit in the neighbourhood of Laybach, so fruitful in natural phenomena, was the quicksilver mines at Idria. The road thither is one continued ascent and though the aspect of the abyss, round which the road is carried, is somewhat fearful, yet the traveller has nothing to apprehend, for a railing effectually protects him from danger. The town is about five leagues from Upper Laybach, with a population of four thousand, entirely supported by working at the mines, making lace, and straw bonnets. It was distressing to see their pale, unhealthy countenances, so indicative of the pernicious atmosphere they inhale.

The descent, which is computed to be about two hundred fathoms, will occupy, in one of the miners' buckets, about five minutes: this is less fatiguing; but the most interesting is that performed on foot, by successive flights of steps, when we may observe, with the utmost accuracy, the various works which have been constructed from the commencement. The passage is arched throughout with cut stone, and averages about four feet in width and six in height; the atmosphere is dry, except in the vicinity of the veins, and altogether