strain of it was heard after the Almhütte and its fair occupants were out of sight.

Of the boats under the charge of the Kanzler at the lake of Grundl, some are built on the model of the English wherry, others are simple canoes, not unlike the open dinghy of India, but there is a third kind peculiar to the place. This is a small flat-bottomed boat, with room in it but for one person. The sculler sits on the flat bottom, and takes in both hands a long propeller with blades at ends. This is dipped into the water alternately on either side, and by its means the boat is sent along at considerable speed. In managing a boat of this sort, the first difficulty for the sculler is to balance himself. This is at first by no means easy, as the little skiff is extremely light, and its rather high sides catch every breath of wind. This surmounted, the next object is to use the propeller, first, so as to avoid upsetting the skiff, and, secondly, to send it on at speed. It is astonishing to notice the dexterity attained by the Styrian peasants in this respect. There are, indeed, few prettier sights than that of a peasant girl in the becoming costume of the country, propelling one of these tiny boats, and endeavouring, by the exercise of greater skill, to avoid the pursuit which one of the opposite sex, relying on superior strength, would at once inaugurate. To watch how, going at a moderate pace, she would allow her enemy to come by rapid strokes nearly alongside, then, suddenly stopping, would see him forge far ahead, whilst she skilfully altered her course; to watch him coming on again more furiously, only to be again baffled by some other manoeuvre, until she, the weaker, either returned unconquered, or, forcing him to