Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/101

Rh Isar flowing slowly. Here the work of the inundations of the primal oceans becomes conceivable. In many granite rubbles I found the counterparts of the specimens in my cabinet, for which I have to thank Knebel.

The mists rising from the river and the meadows hung about for a time; but at last they, too, dispersed. Between these gravelly hills, which you must think of as extending, both in length and breadth, for many leagues, is a highly beautiful and fertile region like that in the basin of the Regen. Now one comes again upon the Isar, and observes in its channel a precipitous section of the gravel-hills, at least a hundred and fifty feet high. I arrived at Wolfrathshausen, and reached the eight and fortieth degree. The sun was scorching hot. No one relies on the fine weather. Every one is complaining of the past year, and bitterly weeping over the arrangements of Providence.

And now a new world opened upon me. I was approaching the mountains, which stood out more and more distinctly.

Benedictbeuern has a glorious situation, and charms one at first sight. On a fertile plain is a long and broad white building, and behind it a broad and lofty ridge of rocks. Next, one ascends to the Kochelsee, and, still higher on the mountains, to the Walchensee. Here I greeted the first snow-capped summit, and, in the midst of my admiration at being so near the snowy mountains, I was informed that yesterday it had thundered in these parts, and that snow had fallen on the heights. From these meteoric tokens people draw hopes of better weather, and from this early snow anticipate change in the atmosphere. The rocks around me are all of limestone, of the oldest formation, and containing no fossils. These limestone mountains extend, in vast, unbroken ranges, from Dalmatia to Mount St. Gothard. Hacquet has travelled over a