The pine-trees in the forests of the Marmaros Mountains are simply magnificent; the birch and oak are hardly less remarkable.  It is really grievous to see the amount of ruthless destruction which is allowed to go on in these valuable forests, more especially in those belonging to the State.  It is the old story—­the Rusniack herdsman, to get herbage for his cattle, will set fire to the forest, and perhaps burn some hundreds of acres of standing timber.  The result brings very little good to himself; but the blackened trunks of thousands of half-burned trees bear witness to the peasant’s inveterate love of waste, and the utter inefficiency of the forest laws, or rather of their administration.  Throughout Hungary it is the same, the power of the law does not make itself felt in the remoter provinces.  For example, in the year 1877 there have been scores of incendiary fires in the county of Zemplin; homesteads, hayricks, and woods have suffered, and yet punishment rarely falls on the offender.  Government should look to this, for lawlessness is a most infectious disorder.

The Marmaros district is chiefly known for the salt mines, which have been worked here for centuries.  Salt is a Government monopoly in Hungary, and is sold at the high price of five florins the hundredweight, forming, in fact, an important source of revenue.  The mines at Slatina, not far from Szigeth, are well worth a visit.  One of the chambers is of immense size; in this a pyramid of salt is left untouched, and by its downward growth marks the progress of excavation.  At the foot of this pyramid is a little altar, where every year, on the 3d of March, mass is celebrated with great ceremony, that being the day of Kunigunde, the patron saint of the mines.

One of our expeditions was to visit the mines at Ronasick.  Here, too, is an enormous cave with a dome-shaped roof, one hundred and fifty feet above the surface of the water, which covers the floor to the amazing depth, it is said, of three hundred feet.  Part of the visitor’s programme is to be paddled about on this subterranean lake.  We embarked on a raft slowly propelled by rowers; a cresset fire burning brightly at the prow of our craft cast strange lights and shadows on the black waters, added to which the shimmering reflection of the white-ribbed walls had a very singular effect.  But the sensation was still more weird when we saw other mystic forms appearing from out the black darkness; first a mere speck of red light was visible, till nearing us we beheld other boats freighted with grim-looking figures that glided past into the further darkness.  These phantom-like forms, steering their rafts through the black and silent waters, were grotesquely lit up from time to time by the pulsating red firelight.  It might have been a scene from Dante’s ‘Inferno’!

It was with the sense of escape from a living tomb that we emerged from the depths below into the upper air, and here awaited us a sight never to be forgotten, more especially for its singular contrast to the horrid gloom of the under-world.  Here, above ground, in the blessed free expanse of earth and sky, we beheld the heavens ablaze with all the intensest glory of a magnificent sunset.  One’s soul in deep gladness drank in the ineffable loveliness of nature, as if athirst for the beauty of light and life.