The stones are raised through
these shafts by means of gigantic cranes and engines. Because of the
rapid evaporation of the water in the porous stone, these vaults are
always cool, winter and summer, and therefore they are used by several
brewers as storehouses for their beer, which owes its fame to these
underground halls.
[Illustration: THE MILLSTONE GALLERIES IN THE LAVA BEDS OF
NIEDERMENDIG.]
[Illustration: ON THE LAVA BEDS OF NIEDERMENDIG.]
Although the traces of former volcanic action are evident to the
student of nature, the Rhine with its mild climate and luxuriant
vegetation has covered many marks of the former chaotic state of the
land. Very little of this beauty is seen on the higher and,
therefore, more severe and barren mountains of the Western Eifel,
through which a volcanic fissure runs from the foot of the high
unhospitable Schneifel to Bertrich Baths, near the Moselle. From the
ridge of the Schneifel the traveler from the north has his first
glimpse of the still distant system of volcanoes.
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