[Illustration:  ON THE LAVA BEDS OF NIEDERMENDIG.]

Although the traces of former volcanic action are evident to the student of nature, the Rhine with its mild climate and luxuriant vegetation has covered many marks of the former chaotic state of the land.  Very little of this beauty is seen on the higher and, therefore, more severe and barren mountains of the Western Eifel, through which a volcanic fissure runs from the foot of the high unhospitable Schneifel to Bertrich Baths, near the Moselle.  From the ridge of the Schneifel the traveler from the north has his first glimpse of the still distant system of volcanoes.  The most beautiful part of this portion of the Eifel is in the neighborhood of Dann and Manderscheid.  Near the former rises a barren mountain with a long ridge, on each side of which is a deep basin.  These are sunken craters, which now contain lakes, and near these two there is a third, larger lake, the Maar von Schalkemehren, on the cultivated banks of which we find a little village.  The middle one, the Weinfelder Maar, is the most interesting for geologists, for there seems to have been scarcely any change here since the time of the eruption.  On the other side of the mountain lies the Gremundener Maar, the shores of which are not barren and waste land, like those of the middle lake, but it is surrounded by a dark wreath of woods whose tops are mirrored in the crystal water.  Farther to the south, near the villages of Gillenfeld and Meerfeld, there are more lakes.

[Illustration:  THE WEINFELDER LAKE ON THE MAUSEBERGE.]

[Illustration:  EASTERN DECLIVITY OF MOSENBERGE NEAR MANDERSCHEID.]

The grandest picture of these ancient events is offered by the Mosenberg, near Manderscheid, a mighty volcano which commands an extensive view of the country.  Two old craters lie on its double top, one of which has fallen in, forming a short rocky valley, but the other retains its original regular shape.  In the circular funnel, whose walls consist of masses of lava stone, rests a quiet, black lake, that looks very mysterious to the wanderer.  Only low juniper bushes grow near the crater, bearing witness to the barrenness of the land.  From the foot of this mountain an immense stream of lava, as wide and deep as a glacier, broke forth and flowed into the valley, where the end of the stream is still to be seen in a high, steep wall of rock.

[Illustration:  THE “CHEESE GROTTO” AT BERTRICH BATHS.]

Similar sights are met all through this western volcanic region, and we can consider the mineral and acid springs, which are very numerous, as the last traces of the former disturbances, the products of the decomposition of the volcanic stones buried in the earth.  At Bertrich Baths there are hot springs which were known to the Romans, for numerous antiquities dating from their time have been excavated here.  Near these springs, at Bertrich, there is a “Cheese Grotto,” which is a break through the foot of a stream of lava, the stones of which have not assumed the usual form of solidified columns, but have taken flat, round shapes which resemble the forms of cheeses.