A Klause, in these alpine countries, generally signifies a dam or embankment, built over some mountain stream, in the centre of which are flood-gates, which can be closed so as to shut in the stream, which by degrees collects behind the wall or dam, till it forms a small lake. The use of this arrangement is to float down the wood which is cut in the mountains into the larger rivers, the mountain streams not having in summer a sufficient body of water to effect this without this contrivance. The fir-trees, cut into pieces from five to ten feet long, are rolled down from the mountain into these artificial lakes. When a sufficient quantity is collected on the surface, or the water rises too high, the Klause wird gesprengt, that is, the flood-gates are opened, and the pent up lake rushing out with tremendous velocity, carries the wood along with it into the river of the neighbouring valley. It was to see the water let out that we went to the Klause. We started from Ischl after dinner, at one o'clock, a large party in six or seven carriages, and drove up the valley of the Traun, for about a league and a half, to Weissenbach, a village at the foot of the mountain on which the Klause is situated. Here we left our carriages and walked up the mountain, the road being very steep. I joined a party consisting of Madame de B—— and her daughter, a Greek gentleman and his wife, and two or three others, and we seemed much to have shortened a hot walk of an hour and a half up hill by chatting on various subjects.
We found the Chorinsky Klause to consist of a very strong and thick wall, from thirty to forty feet high, built across a narrow valley. In the centre of the wall was a large flood-gate, and on each side of it a much smaller one. These were situated at a considerable height above a clear shallow pool which lay at the foot of the wall, and was formed by the superfluous water which had drained from the lake, already over full. The whole party having taken a good position in front of the Klause, the signal was given. The workmen struck the spring of the flood-gates in the centre, which instantly burst open with a noise resembling a sudden but hollow clap of thunder; at the same moment an immense spout of water rushed forth, filling the space before occupied by the invisible air. It was the work of a second, and it was a magnificent sight to see the tranquil pool in an instant transformed into a basin of curling foam, pouring with irresistible violence over the rocks of the foreground, and whirling up the sand from the bottom of the stream, which was for the first five minutes nothing but foam of a muddy brown colour, till it changed by degrees to a pure white. The lesser flood-gates were afterwards opened, and then three streams poured forth at once from the lake. This scene lasted for nearly half an hour, the cascades becoming less and less as the quantity of water in the lake diminished, until the latter was perfectly drained; and where but a short time before we beheld a beautifully clear lake, we now saw only cleanly washed pebbles and sand, through which a little insignificant rill was running. Our walk back was very pleasant and shady. Among the party Madame A—— and Madame L——, two celebrated actresses, the one in comedy, the other in tragedy, from Vienna, were pointed out to me; the former of whom was a handsome woman, though of small stature, and lively and animated in her conversation. After this excursion I very often met a great many of the party in a small public garden called the Volksgarten, to distinguish it from the Prater, and where it is the fashion to spend an hour before dinner. The conversation one day turned upon the following lines, which were found written upon a table in the garden:
Espérance d'un meilleur sort
Toujours renaissante et trahie,
Voila l'histoire de ma vie;
Il n'est rien de vrai que la mort!
Various were the discussions upon them, and the ladies took great pains to discover the author. Who could he be? Who was there in Ischl whose character at all answered to this description? No one could be hit upon with any certainty; but at last the lively Mademoiselle Marie, the daughter of Madame de B——, with whom I had walked to the Chorinsky Klause, declared it must be the solitary young Englishman, who so rarely joined in their parties of pleasure, and who visited nobody. It was in vain that I denied having written them, for they determined with one accord that I should be considered as the author, unless I should by the next morning produce four lines which might convince them of their error. I accepted the challenge, and accordingly after dinner, for the first time in my life, attempted to compose a couplet, and after ransacking my brains, I could produce nothing better than the following;—
Est elle donc vraie cette mort tant souhaitée?
N'est ce pas naître à une plus mauvaise vie?
Ne dirais tu pas dans l'éternité,
La mort que j'ai desiré m'a trahie?—
which I the next morning wrote under those of the anonymous author. In the evening I met the greater part of the company at the little theatre, which had been finished the week before, and in which a small company of players from some neighbouring town were doing their best to amuse the gay visitants of the baths. The ladies, and especially Mademoiselle Marie, said they had read the verses, and were more than ever persuaded of their being in the right, nor could all my rhetoric, aided by a pocket full of bonbons, convince them of the truth.
18th. This evening at a late hour Sir Humphry returned from his fishing, without either fish or rod, and, not a little vexed, begged I would go directly to the Commissary of the Police, and endeavour to regain his rod, which he told me had been taken from him in the following manner. He had driven along the banks of the Traun for about five miles, in a little chaise which he sometimes uses in his longer excursions, had been fishing for some hours, and was just preparing to return, when two men came up, one of whom began to talk to him and George in German, but as neither of them understood him, Sir Humphry proceeded to get into the carriage, whilst George took up the fish which had been caught. Upon this the man became more violent in his words and actions, and at last forcibly seized the rod and basket, and walked off with them. Although it was just ten o'clock, I went to the inn where I knew the Commissary generally supped, and luckily found him. I related to him what had happened, and he was very polite, but said nothing could be done that night, but begged me to come to him the next morning, and to bring the servant with me.
19th. I took George this morning to the Commissary, who, from his description, immediately recognized the offender, but found that he did not belong to his district, but to that of Ebensee, to the Commissary of which place he gave me a very civil letter. I returned to Sir Humphry, who said that I should take a carriage and drive over at once to Ebensee with George, and he gave me letters of introduction, which he had with him, to the Governor of the province, and some other great men, to show the Commissary. Arrived at Ebensee, I found the Commissary all civility, and the fisherman, who lived at some distance, was immediately summoned. In the mean time the Commissary told me that the rivers and lakes were let out in different portions to various fishermen, who alone have the right to fish, or allow any other person to do so, in that part which they rent, and he supposed that Sir Humphry had exceeded the limit of the portion belonging to the fisherman at Ischl, from whom he had obtained permission to fish.
Whilst waiting for the fisherman, I asked the Commissary if I could not see the salt works; he said certainly, and that he should be happy to show them to me, and I accordingly accompanied him thither, and found them to be on a very large scale. There are several evaporating pans, much larger than the one at Ischl, and immense reservoirs for the salt water are kept constantly by three pipes, through which it is conducted from Hallstadt, more than twenty-seven miles distant. These pipes, the master of the works told me, are always running, and should any accident happen to either of them, it can be easily repaired, in spite of the great distance they traverse, there being, at very short intervals, places where the pipes may be uncovered and examined. From the reservoirs the water is conducted into the pans, and the salt produced by the evaporation is taken out twice every day, and put into large conical baskets to drain, after which it is pressed into conical six-sided forms, of various sizes, from twenty to a hundred pounds each. These pyramids are then placed, some thousands at a time, in the baking rooms, where they are exposed to a very high temperature, which renders them quite firm and hard, after which they are carried into the store-houses, from whence the salt is sent to all parts of Austria. The quantity produced in this part of the country, in these salt-works, in those of Ischl, Aussee, Hallstadt, &c., must be immense, for I understand that from the warehouses of Ebensee alone, upwards of 25,000 tons of salt are sent annually across the lake of the Traun.
Upon the arrival of the fisherman we found the case to be as the Commissary had supposed, and the man pleaded in his defence that it was allowed to take away both rod and fish from any one so offending. The Commissary, however, told him he ought to have warned Sir Humphry of this. The poor man said he had done so, but they would not understand him, and in spite of his defence, the Commissary compelled him to deliver up the rod and basket, with which I returned to Ischl.