The largest lake in Hungary is Lake Balaton, which may well be described as an inland sea, for it is 47 miles in length. It is difficult to describe what Lake Balaton means to a country like Hungary deprived of a seashore. Though the lake has no tides the levels are so constantly changing that monotony is impossible; this is no dead sheet of water. Its very size makes room for the breakers the storm-wind sweeps before it, and storms are by no means lacking. For many years there has been a railway line along the southern shore, but only recently another, completed in 1909, carries people also along the northern shore, which is the more popular, and the health resorts and bathing places which have sprung up are innumerable. All Hungarians who can afford it carry their families to this charming resort, there to bathe and dabble and fish, or to voyage by steamer or yacht. The lake is divided into two by a long peninsula which stretches out from the north side almost to the opposite shore. On the north side, there are hills rising in vine-clad slopes, with white houses nestling in them, and at the foot many a town, of which Balaton-Füred is the principal one. The lake is rather shallow, though varying enormously with the feeding it receives from springs and streams, but it is deepest on the north side, where bathing is easier than on the sandy shore of the too shallow south. Long wooden piers with huts at the end of them are constantly available, and every one bathes. Many a pretty picture can be seen of a peasant woman, her face alight with fun, her wet hair thrown back, dipping a pink innocent babe in the fresh water. Balaton-Füred is not only a seaside place but has wonderful alkali springs and baths which are excellent as cures. There are many excursions to be made. Steamers run the whole length of the lake. The walks and drives are innumerable. For other interests there are yacht races and fishing. In winter the lake freezes easily because of its general shallowness, and then the whole of the 600 square kilometres are available for skating and winter sport. When the ice breaks up, which it does with cracks like pistol-shots, and piles itself in masses, glittering with every colour of the rainbow like gigantic prisms, happy are they who are there to see it! [Illustration: THE ÖRTLER SPITZE] At the western end there are curious basaltic effects, great cones rising from the vine-covered slopes like sugar-loaves, or hills which appear to be built up of columns of basalt, as in the far-famed Fingall’s Cave of Scotland. There are ruined castles artistically arranged on hills, piled up by the gradual forces of nature, not by art; and there is the magnificent seat of Count Tassilo Festetics at Keszthely near the western end. Balaton well deserves the place it holds in popular estimation in Hungary.