they had told Bismarck he might have, not ten thousand, but a hundred
thousand soldiers, such was the power of association awakened by this
famous hymn, such the spell it is capable of exercising on German
hearers.

Topography of the Rhine

Ere we set sail upon the dark sea of legend before us it is necessary
that, like prudent mariners, we should know whence and whither we are
faring. To this end it will be well that we should glance briefly at
the topography of the great river we are about to explore, and that we
should sketch rapidly the most salient occurrences in the strange
and varied pageant of its history, in order that we may the better
appreciate the wondrous tales of worldwide renown which have found birth
on its banks.

Although the most German of rivers, the Rhine does not run its entire
course through German territory, but takes its rise in Switzerland and
finds the sea in Holland. For no less than 233 miles it flows through
Swiss country, rising in the mountains of the canton of Grisons, and
irrigates every canton of the Alpine republic save that of Geneva.
Indeed, it waters over 14,000 square miles of Swiss territory in the
flow of its two main branches, the Nearer Rhine and the Farther Rhine,
which unite at Reichenau, near Coire. The Nearer Rhine issues at the
height of over 7000 feet from the glaciers of the Rheinwaldhorn
group, and flows for some thirty-five miles, first in a north-easterly
direction through the Rheinwald Valley, then northward through the
Schams Valley, by way of the Via Mala gorge, and Tomleschg Valley, and
so to Reichenau, where it is joined by its sister stream, the Farther
Rhine. The latter, rising in the little Alpine lake of Toma near the