The press of travellers was so great this time, that two days before
the departure the cabins were all
Engaged; several ladies and
gentlemen who would not wait for the next steamer were compelled to
be satisfied with the deck, and I was among them; for the
probability of such a crowd of passengers had not occurred to me,
and I applied for a place only two days before our departure.
During the journey fresh passengers were taken in at every station,
and the reader may conceive the misery of the poor citizens unused
to such hardships. Every one sought a shelter for the night, and
the little cabins of the engineer and steersman were given up to
some, while others crept into the passages, or squatted down on the
steps of the stairs leading to the cabins. A place was offered to
me in the engineer's cabin; but as three or four other persons were
to share the apartment calculated only for one person, I preferred
to bivouac night and day upon deck. One of the gentlemen was kind
enough to lend me a thick cloak, in which I could wrap myself; and
so I slept much more comfortably under the high canopy of heaven
than my companions did in their sweating-room.
The arrangements in the vessels navigating the Gotha canal are by no
means the best. The first class is very comfortable, and the cabin-
place is divided into pretty light divisions for two persons; but
the second class is all the more uncomfortable: its cabin is used
for a common dining-room by day, and by night hammocks are slung up
in it for sleeping accommodation. The arrangements for the luggage
are worse still. The canal-boats, having only a very small hold,
trunks, boxes, portmanteaus, &c. are heaped up on the deck, not
fastened at all, and very insufficiently protected against rain.
The consequence of this carelessness on a journey of five or six
days was, that the rain and the high waves of the lakes frequently
put the after-deck several inches under water, and then the luggage
was wetted through. It was worse still in a squall on the Wenner
lake; for while the ship was rather roughly tossed about, many a
trunk lost its equilibrium and fell from its high position,
frequently endangering the safety of the passengers' heads. The
fares are, however, very cheap, which seemed doubly strange, as the
many locks must cause considerable expense.
And now for the journey itself. We started at five o'clock in the
morning, and soon arrived in the river Gotha, whose shores for the
first few miles are flat and bare. The valley itself is bounded by
bare, rocky hills. After about nine miles we came to the town of
Kongelf, which is said to have 1000 inhabitants. It is so situated
among rocks, that it is almost hidden from view. On a rock opposite
the town are the ruins of the fortress Bogus.
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