[Illustration: LAKE GEMUNDEN.]
Tired from our climb through the ashes, which are heated by the sun,
we rest in the shade of a beech-wood, looking through the leaves into
the valley below us, with the old cloisters and the high Roman church
which the monks once built on the banks of the lake.
[Illustration: THE CRATER OF THE HERCHENBERGES.]
To the south of the lake rise other volcanoes, lying on the border of
the fertile Maifeld, which gradually descends to the valley of
Neuwied. Here, at the southern declivity of the group of volcanoes
which surrounds the Laachersee, remarkably large streams of lava were
ejected, covering the surface of the plateau with a thick layer. The
largest of these streams is that from the Niedermendig, which consists
of porous masses of nepheline lava. In the time of the Romans
millstones were made from this mass of rock, and the industry is
carried on now on a larger scale. It is a strange sight which meets
one's eyes when, after descending through narrow passages, he finds
himself in large, dark halls, from which the stone has been cut away,
and in which there are well-like shafts.
Pages:
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176