remarkable. Life here is laborious, but downright want I should say rare.
As in the Jura, the forest gorges and park-like solitudes are disturbed
by the sound of hammer and wheel, and a tall factory chimney not
infrequently spoils a wild landscape. The greater part of the people
gain, their livelihood in the manufactories, very little land here being
suitable for tillage.

Gerardmer is famous for its cheeses; another local industry is turnery
and the weaving of linen, the linen manufactories employing many hands,
whilst not a mountain cottage is without its handloom for winter use.
Weaving at home is chiefly resorted to as a means of livelihood in
winter, when the country is covered with snow and no out-door occupations
are possible. Embroidery is also a special fabric of the Vosges, but its
real wealth lies in mines of salt and iron, and mineral waters.

One chief feature in Gerardmer is the congeries of handsome buildings
bearing the inscription _"Ecole Communale"_ and how stringently the
new educational law is enforced throughout France may be gathered from
the spectacle of schoolboys at drill. We saw three squadrons, each under
the charge of a separate master, evidently made up from all classes of
the community. Some of the boys were poorly, nay, miserably, clad,
others wore good homely clothes, a few were really well dressed.

Our first week at Gerardmer was wet and chilly. Fires and winter clothes
would have been acceptable, but at last came warmth and sunshine, and we
set off for the Col de la Schlucht, the grandest feature of the Vosges,
and the goal of every traveller in these regions.

[Illustration: CIRQUE DE RETOURNEMER]