about twenty minutes had left the first fall behind us. The two
succeeding falls are less considerable.

On the Austro-Wallachian side a road extends over a distance of
fourteen to sixteen miles, frequently strengthened with masonry, and
at some points hewn out of the solid rock. In the midst of this
road, on a high wall of rock, we see the celebrated "Veteran Cave,"
one of the most impregnable points on the banks of the Danube. It
is surrounded by redoubts, and is admirably calculated to command
the passage of the river. This cave is said to be sufficiently
spacious to contain 500 men. So far back as the time of the Romans
it was already used as a point of defence for the Danube. Some five
miles below it we notice the "Trajan's Tablet," hewn out of a
protruding rock.

On the Turco-Servian side the masses of rock jut out so far into the
stream, that no room is left for a footway. Here the famous
Trajan's Road once existed. No traces of this work remain, save
that the traveller notices, for fifteen or twenty miles, holes cut
here and there in the rock. In these holes strong trunks of trees
were fastened; these supported the planks of which the road is said
to have been formed.

At eleven in the forenoon we reached Alt-Orsova, the last Austrian
town on the military frontier of Banata or Wallachia. We were
obliged to remain here for half a day.

The town has rather a pretty effect, being composed mostly of new
houses. The house belonging to the steamboat company is
particularly remarkable. It is not, however, devoted to the