The Carpathians are of great bulk and breadth, and are covered with trees. The highest peaks are above the perpetual snow-line, and rise grandly from the evergreen forests. In the higher parts pine and fir predominate, but in the lower ranges oak, beech, and ash are common. Vast armies of pigs, led by little swineherds, seek their chief food under the trees, where they find abundance of beech-mast and acorns. The sight of a swineherd leading forth his flock in the morning from a village is a quaint one. He stands and calls or whistles, and from almost every cottage one or more pigs joyfully run grunting to join him; many of them are horrible creatures to our notions, with matted long hair and covered with fleas; nevertheless he lets them rub up against him, he fondles them, and allows them to rest their heads on his lap!
The chief features of the health resorts in the Carpathians are the wonderful mineral waters which gush out abundantly almost everywhere, and the glorious air and grand scenery. The springs and baths alone are enough to make the fortune of any place, but when added to these are endless diversity of walks through forest scenery, wonderful panoramas of wind and rock-scarred precipices, stretching on one behind the other and backed up perhaps by a mantle of glittering snow, it is remarkable the world at large has not yet “discovered” this playground fully.
There are also little lakes lying in hollows. These are the work of glaciers, and are of a deep blue or green colour. On a still day the scenery is reflected as in a mirror. They are called by the poetic name of “sea-eyes.” The terrific falls of water streak the precipitous heights with white ribbons.
For those who can afford it there is chamois-hunting, though it gets yearly more difficult as the animals are driven further and further by the intrusion of men; and even bison-hunting, though this has to be arranged with a private owner who only grants the privilege to his guests. The resorts are greatly sought by invalids in the winter, and also by a totally different class of pleasure-seekers, those who delight in ice-sports and pastimes. The two seasons are from the middle of June to the end of September, and from the middle of December to the end of February.
All through the Tátra runs a fine road, made by the Hungarian Carpathian club to link up the principal places; this is 21 miles in length and reaches from Csorba to Barlangliget.
The railway line to the Tátra passes by the river Vág for the most part, and as every height is crowned more or less by a ruined castle, it is inevitable that the route has been compared with the Rhine valley. But there is no steamer on the Vág on account of its rapids, and those who wish to come down it will have to do so on a native-made raft, which is piloted with great skill by the peasants through seemingly impassable turmoils of water. The rail goes past Poprad, and it is near here that the first real view of the Carpathians is had, the central range, stretching grim and grey about thirty miles due east and west, and rising apparently straight from the plain.
From Poprad can be visited the extraordinary Ice Cave at Dobsina, one of the wonders of the world, where skating is possible in the summer even when the air outside is at a high temperature. The perpetual chill in the cavern is accounted for by the fact that it lies at a lower level than the outer ground, and that the cold air, having once entered, hangs heavily, so when the warmer air of summer seeks to displace it, it cannot find entrance. The cave is to-day planed and smoothed and rendered easy of access in the way universally considered necessary with any work of Nature’s, until it resembles a piece of man’s architecture; nevertheless the beauty is still great, even though the gleam from the crystals is that reflected by electricity, which gives an artificial aspect to everything. The ice-columns and pendants are constantly changing in bulk and form, and the floor of the lower cave, a mass of ice, the cubic content of which can hardly be estimated, is so smooth that skating is possible at any time of the year.
From Poprad again one can go to Csorba, where a small cog-wheel railway runs to a lake thus described by one who is an artist in words: “Magnificently situated among mountains and forest. Lines and patches of snow flecked the heights, and were mirrored in the still waters. Against the sunset the mountains became a warm plum colour, and, with the dark forests, plane behind plane of purply green, were all perfectly reflected in the glowing water, save where the evening breeze cut level silver lines.” Strange tales are told of some of these lakes, the depths of which are unmeasured, and the notion that they are connected with the sea by some subterranean caverns is still believed by the peasants. The hotel here belongs to the Sleeping-Car Company.
The massive granite range of the High Tátra is about 18 miles long by 9 or 10 broad, its highest summits are Francis Joseph, Lomnitz, and Ice-Valley Peaks, rising to about 9000 feet.
The best known of all the Tátra watering-places is Tátra Füred, called the mother of them all. This holds its season in July and August, and consists of three settlements, New Smecks, Old Smecks, and Lower Smecks, with numerous hotels, concert halls, restaurants, and every sort of convenience for the visitor. Only 4½ miles away is Tátra Lomnitz, where there is a large hotel and golf-links, but no village. This is the terminus of a loop-line from Poprad. At another of the watering-places in the neighbourhood, Barlangliget, there are wonderful caves with stalactite formations. This stands higher than Tátra Lomnitz on the road leading to Poland.