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The asterism symbol is denoted by **
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[Illustration]
A
THOUSAND MILES
IN THE
ROB ROY CANOE
ON RIVERS AND LAKES OF
EUROPE.
BY J. MACGREGOR, M.A.,
TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;
BARRISTER AT LAW:
With Numerous Illustrations and a Map.
_SIXTH THOUSAND._
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON
MILTON HOUSE, LUDGATE-HILL.
1866.
(_The Right of Translation reserved._)
PREFACE.
The voyage about to be described was made last Autumn in a small Canoe,
with a double paddle and sails, which the writer managed alone.
The route led sometimes over mountains and through forests and plains,
where the boat had to be carried or dragged.
The waters navigated were as follows:--
The Rivers Thames, Sambre, Meuse, Rhine, Main, Danube, Reuss, Aar, Ill,
Moselle, Meurthe, Marne, and Seine.
The Lakes Titisee, Constance, Unter See, Zurich, Zug, and Lucerne,
together with six canals in Belgium and France, and two expeditions in
the open sea of the British Channel.
TEMPLE, LONDON,
_April 25, 1866_.
THE AUTHOR'S PROFITS FROM THE FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS, WERE
GIVEN TO THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION AND TO THE
SHIPWRECKED MARINERS' SOCIETY.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
RAPIDS OF THE REUSS (_Frontispiece_). --
SEA ROLLERS IN THE CHANNEL 19
SWIMMING HERD ON THE MEUSE 28
SINGERS' WAGGON ON THE DANUBE 49
A CROWD IN THE MORNING 65
HAYMAKERS AMAZED 80
NIGHT SURPRISE AT GEGGLINGEN 93
THE ROB ROY IN A BUSTLE 110
SAILING UPON LAKE ZUG 134
SHIRKING A WATERFALL 152
A CRITICAL MOMENT 168
ASTRIDE THE STERN 186
THE ROB ROY AND THE COW 213
POLITE TO THE LADIES 230
GROUP OF FRENCH FISHERS 246
PASSING A DANGEROUS BARRIER 263
A CHOKED CANAL 281
RIGGING ASHORE 290
ROUTE OF THE CANOE (_Map_) 291
CHART OF CURRENTS AND ROCKS 302
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. Page
Canoe Travelling--Other Modes--The Rob
Roy--Hints--Tourists--The Rivers--The Dress--I and We 1
CHAPTER II.
The Start--The Nore--Porpoises--A Gale--The Channel--Ostend
Canal--River Meuse--Earl of Aberdeen--Holland--The
Rhine--The Premier's Son--River Main--Heron
Stalking--The Prince of Wales 12
CHAPTER III.
Hollenthal Pass--Ladies--Black Forest--Night Music--Beds--Lake
Titisee--Pontius Pilate--Storm--Starers--Banket--Four
in hand--Source of the Danube 38
CHAPTER IV.
River Donau--Singers--Shady nooks--Geisingen--Mill
Weirs--Rapids--Morning Crowd--Donkey's
Stable--Islands--Monks--Spiders--Concert--Fish--A
race 55
CHAPTER V.
Sigmaringen--Treacherous trees--Congress of herons--Flying
Dutchman--Tub and shovel--Bottle race--Snags--Bridge
Perils--Ya Vol--Ferry Rope--Benighted--Ten eggs 75
CHAPTER VI.
Day-dream--River Iller--Ulm--A stiff king--Lake Constance--Seeing
in the dark--Switzerland--Coloured
Canvas--Sign talk--Synagogue--Amelia--Gibberish 96
CHAPTER VII.
Fog--Fancy pictures--Boy soldiers--Boat's billet--Eating--Lake
Zurich--Crinoline--Hot walk--Staring--Lake
Zug--Swiss shots--Fishing Britons--Talk-book 118
CHAPTER VIII.
Sailing on Lucerne--Seeburg--River scenes--Night and
snow--The Reuss--A dear dinner--Seeing a rope--Passing
a fall--Sullen roar--Bremgarten rapids 142
CHAPTER IX.
Hunger--Music at the mill--Sentiment and chops--River
Limmat--Fixed on a fall--River Aar--Rhine again--Douaniers--Falls
of Lauffenburg--The cow cart 159
CHAPTER X.
Field of Foam--Precipice--Puzzled--Philosophy--Rheinfelden
Rapids--Dazzled--Lower Rapids--Astride--Fate
of the Four-oar--Very Salt--Ladies--Whirlpool--Funny
English--Insulting a baby--Bride 177
CHAPTER XI.
Private concert--Thunderer--La Hardt Forest--Mulhouse
Canal--River Ill--Reading Stories--Madame Nico--Night
Noises--Pets--Ducking--The Vosges mountains--Admirers--Boat
on wheels--New wine 196
CHAPTER XII.
Bonfire--My wife--Matthews--Tunnel
picture--Imposture--Fancy--Moselle--Cocher--Saturday
Review Tracts--Gymnastics--The
paddle--A spell--Overhead--Feminine
forum--Public breakfast 216
CHAPTER XIII.
River Moselle--The Tramp--Halcyon--Painted woman--Beating
to quarters--Boat in a hedge--River Meurthe--Moving
House--Tears of a mother--Five francs 234
CHAPTER XIV.
Ladies in muslin--Chalons Camp--Officers shouting--Volunteers'
umbrella--Reims--Leaks--Madame
Clicquot--Heavy blow--The Elephant--First Cloud 255
CHAPTER XV.
Meaux on the Marne--Hammering--Popish forms--Wise
dogs--Blocked in a Tunnel--A dry voyage--Arbour
and Garret--Odd fellows--Dream on the Seine--Almost
over--No admittance--Charing-cross 276
APPENDIX.
Hints for Canoists--The Rob Roy's Stores--Chart of rocks
and currents--The Kent--Danger--Exercise--Sun--Walking
machine--Odds and ends--Future voyages 291
CHAPTER I.
Canoe Travelling--Other Modes--The Rob
Roy--Hints--Tourists--The Rivers--The Dress--I and We--The
Election.
The object of this book is to describe a new mode of travelling on the
Continent, by which new people and things are met with, while healthy
exercise is enjoyed, and an interest ever varied with excitement keeps
fully alert the energies of the mind.
Some years ago the Water Lily was rowed by four men on the Rhine and on
the Danube, and its "log" delighted all readers. Afterwards, the boat
Water Witch laboured up French rivers, and through a hundred tedious
locks on the Bâle canal. But these and other voyages of three or five
men in an open boat were necessarily very limited. In the wildest parts
of the best rivers the channel is too narrow for oars, or, if wide, it
is too shallow for a row-boat; and the tortuous passages, the rocks and
banks, the weeds and snags, the milldams, barriers, fallen trees,
rapids, whirlpools, and waterfalls that constantly occur on a river
winding among hills, make those very parts where the scenery is wildest
and best to be quite unapproachable in an open boat, for it would be
swamped by the sharp waves, or upset over the sunken rocks which it is
utterly impossible for a steersman to see.
But these very things, which are obstacles or dangers to the "pair oar,"
become interesting features to the voyager in a covered canoe. For now,
as he sits in his little bark, he looks forward, and not backward. He
sees all his course, and the scenery besides. With one powerful sweep of
his paddle he can instantly turn the canoe, when only a foot distant
from fatal destruction. He can steer within an inch in a narrow place,
or pass through reeds and weeds, branches and grass; can hoist and lower
his sail without changing his seat; can shove with his paddle when
aground, or jump out in good time to prevent a decided smash. He can
wade and haul the light craft over shallows, or drag it on dry ground,
through fields and hedges, over dykes, barriers, and walls; can carry it
by hand up ladders and stairs, and can transport his boat over high
mountains and broad plains in a cart drawn by a horse, a bullock, or a
cow.
Nay, more than this, the covered canoe is far stronger than an open
boat, and may be fearlessly dropped headforemost into a deep pool, a
lock, or a millrace, and yet, when the breakers are high, in the open
sea or in fresh water rapids, they can only wash over the covered deck,
while it is always dry within.
Again, the canoe is safer than a rowing-boat, because you sit so low in
it, and never require to shift your place or lose hold of the paddle;
while for comfort during long hours, for days and weeks of hard work, it
is evidently the best, because you lean all the time against a
backboard, and the moment you rest the paddle on your lap you are as
much at ease as in an arm-chair; so that, while drifting along with the
current or the wind, you can gaze around, and eat or read or chat with
the starers on the bank, and yet, in a moment of sudden danger, the
hands are at once on the faithful paddle ready for action.
Finally, you can lie at full length in the canoe, with the sail as an
awning for the sun, or a shelter for rain, and you can sleep in it thus
at night, under cover, with an opening for air to leeward, and at least
as much room for turning in your bed as sufficed for the great Duke of
Wellington; or, if you are tired of the water for a time, you can leave
your boat at an inn--it will not be "eating its head off," like a horse;
or you can send it home or sell it, and take to the road yourself, or
sink into the dull old cushions of the "Première Classe," and dream you
are seeing the world.
With such advantages, then, and with good weather and good health, the
canoe voyage about to be described was truly delightful, and I never
enjoyed so much continuous pleasure in any other tour.
But, before this deliberate assertion has weight with intending
"canoists," it may well be asked from one who thus praises the paddle,
"Has he travelled in other ways, so as to know their several pleasures?
Has he climbed glaciers and volcanoes, dived into caves and catacombs,
trotted in the Norway carriole, ambled on an Arab, and galloped on the
Russian steppes? Does he know the charms of a Nile boat, or a Trinity
Eight, or a sail in the Ægean, or a mule in Spain? Has he swung upon a
camel, or glided in a sleigh, or trundled in a Rantoone?"
Yes, he has most thoroughly enjoyed these and other modes of locomotion
in the four corners of the world; but the pleasure in the canoe was far
better than all.
The weather last summer was, indeed, exceptionally good; but then rain
would have diminished some of the difficulties, though it might have
been a bore to paddle ten hours in a downpour. Two inches more of water
in the rivers would have saved many a grounding and wading, while, at
worst, the rain could have wetted only the upper man, which a cape can
cover; so, even in bad weather, give me the canoe.
Messrs. Searle and Sons, of Lambeth, soon built for me the very boat I
wanted.
The Rob Roy is built of oak, and covered fore and aft with cedar. She is
made just short enough to go into the German railway waggons; that is to
say, fifteen feet in length, twenty-eight inches broad, nine inches
deep, weighs eighty pounds, and draws three inches of water, with an
inch of keel. A paddle seven feet long, with a blade at each end, and a
lug sail and jib, are the means of propulsion; and a pretty blue silk
Union Jack is the only ornament.
The elliptic hole in which I sit is fifty-four inches long and twenty
broad, and has a macintosh cover fastened round the combing and to a
button on my breast; while between my knees is my baggage for three
months, in a black bag one foot square and five inches deep.
But, having got this little boat, the difficulty was to find where she
could go to, or what rivers were at once feasible to paddle on, and
pretty to see.
Inquiries in London as to this had no result. Even the Paris Boat Club
knew nothing of French rivers. The best German and Austrian maps were
frequently wrong. They made villages on the banks which I found were a
mile away in a wood, and so were useless to one who had made up his mind
(a good resolve) never to leave his boat.
It was soon, therefore, evident that, after quitting the Rhine, this was
to be a voyage of discovery. And as I would most gladly have accepted
any hints on the matter myself, so I venture to hope that this narrative
will lessen the trouble, while it stimulates the desire of the numerous
travellers who will spend their vacation in a canoe.[I.]
[I.] See Appendix. Special hints for those who intend to "canoe
it" will usually be given in the footnotes, or in the Appendix.
Not that I shall attempt to make a "handbook" to any of the streams. The
man who has a spark of enterprise would turn from a river of which every
reach was mapped and its channels all lettered. Fancy the free
traveller, equipped for a delicious summer of savage life, quietly
submitting to be cramped and tutored by a "Chart of the Upper Mosel,"
in the style of the following extracts copied literally from two
Guide-books;--
(1) "Turn to the r. (right), cross the brook, and ascend by a broad and
steep forest track (in 40 min.) to the hamlet of Albersbach, situate in
the midst of verdant meadows. In five min. more a cross is reached,
where the path to the l. must be taken; in 10 min. to the r., in the
hollow, to the saw mill; in 10 min. more through the gate to the r.; in
3 min. the least trodden path to the l. leading to the Gaschpels Hof;
after 1/4 hr. the stony track into the wood must be ascended," &c.,
&c.--_From B----'s Rhine, p. 94_.
(2) "_To the ridge of the Riffelberg_ 8,000 ft. _Hotel_ on top very
good. 2 hrs. up. Guide 4 fr. Horse and man 10 fr. Path past the Church:
then l. over fields; then up through a wood 1 hr. Past châlets: then r.
across a stream."-- _----'s Handbook_.
This sort of guide-book is not to be ridiculed. It is useful for some
travellers as a ruled copy-book is of use to some writers. For first
tours it may be needful and pleasant to have all made easy, to be
carried in steamers or railways like a parcel, to stop at hotels
Anglified by the crowd of English guests, and to ride, walk, or drive
among people who know already just what you will want to eat, and see,
and do.
Year after year it is enough of excitement to some tourists to be
shifted in squads from town to town, according to the routine of an
excursion ticket. Those who are a little more advanced will venture to
devise a tour from the mazy pages of Bradshaw, and with portmanteau and
bag, and hat-box and sticks, they find more than enough of judgment and
tact is needed when they arrive in a night train, and must fix on an
omnibus in a strange town. Safe at last in the bedroom of the hotel,
they cannot but exclaim with satisfaction "Well, here we are all right
at last!"
But after mountains and caves, churches and galleries, ruins and
battle-fields have been pretty well seen, and after tact and fortitude
have been educated by experience, the tourist is ready for new lines of
travel which might have given him at first more anxiety than pleasure,
and these he will find in deeper searches among the natural scenery and
national character of the very countries he has only skimmed before.
The rivers and streams on the Continent are scarcely known to the
English tourist, and the beauty and life upon them no one has well seen.
In his guide-book route, indeed, from town to town, the tourist has
crossed this and that stream--has admired a few yards of the water, and
has then left it for ever. He is carried again on a noble river by night
in a steamboat, or is whisked along its banks in a railway, and, between
two tunnels, gets a moment's glimpse at the lovely water, and lo! it is
gone.
But a mine of rich beauty remains there to be explored, and fresh gems
of life and character are waiting there to be gathered. These are not
mapped and labelled and ticketed in any handbook yet; and far better so,
for the enjoyment of such treasures is enhanced to the best traveller by
the energy and pluck required to get at them.
On this new world of waters we are to launch the boat, the man, and his
baggage, for we must describe all three,
"Arma virumque canoe."
So what sort of dress did he wear?
The clothes I took for this tour consisted of a complete suit of grey
flannel for use in the boat, and another suit of light but ordinary
dress for shore work and Sundays.
The "Norfolk jacket" is a loose frock-coat, like a blouse, with
shoulder-straps, and belted at the waist, and garnished by six pockets.
With this excellent new-fashioned coat, a something in each of its
pockets, and a Cambridge straw hat, canvas wading shoes, blue
spectacles, a waterproof overcoat, and my spare jib for a sun shawl,
there was sure to be a full day's enjoyment in defiance of rain or sun,
deeps or shallows, hunger or _ennui_.
Four hours' work to begin, and then three of rest or floating, reading
or sailing, and again, a three hours' heavy pull, and then with a swim
in the river or a bath at the inn, a change of garments and a pleasant
walk, all was made quite fresh again for a lively evening, a hearty
dinner, talk, books, pictures, letters, and bed.
Now I foresee that in the description of this tour I shall have to write
"I," and the word "me" must be used by me very often indeed; but having
the misfortune to be neither an Emperor, an editor, nor a married man,
who can speak in the plural, I cannot help it if I am put down as a
bachelor _egotist_, reserving the "we" for myself and my boat.
The manner of working the double-bladed paddle was easily learned by a
few days' practice on the Thames, and so excellent is the exercise for
the muscles of the limbs and body that I have continued it at intervals,
even during the winter, when a pretty sharp "look out" must be kept to
pilot safely among the red and yellow lights of steamers, barges,
embankments, and bridges in an evening's voyage from Putney to
Westminster.
All being ready and the weather very hot at the end of July, when the
country had caught the election fever, and M.P.'s had run off to
scramble for seats, and the lawyers had run after them to thicken the
bustle, and the last bullet at Wimbledon had come "thud" on the target,
it was time for the Rob Roy to start.