Boat-building.
These boats, when finished, are used for all sorts of purposes. The want of good roads, and the fact of the stream being less rapid than that of the Rhine, as well as the absence of steam-tugs, makes the Moselle more lively with barges and small boats, especially the latter; though, of course, there being only three or four steamers on the whole distance (about 150 miles) between Trèves and Coblence, the absence of those puffing drawbacks to tranquil enjoyment renders the Moselle more quiet on the whole.
The larger barges carry iron, earthenware, charcoal, bark, wine, and general cargoes; while the smaller ones are filled with market produce of all sorts going to be sold in the larger towns, and numbers of these small boats are kept at each village for the residents to cross to their farms or vineyards on the opposite bank. There are also ferry-boats, large enough for carts and oxen, or horses, at nearly every cluster of houses.
Boat-building.
Often watching these great boats with their miscellaneous lading, or waiting our own turn to cross, we have been struck by the contrast between the young fair children with flaxen hair and the careworn countenances of the parents, whose skin is nearly as brown as that of a Maltese boatman, his approaching to claret-colour. The peasantry are, as far as we could judge or learn, a simple, contented race, working hard, and in bad seasons ill-fed.
THE FERRY.
On grassy bank the village stands,
The crowds returning, throng
The ferry-boat, which quickly lands,