_28th._ We left Gmünden at eight, crossing over the lake in a large boat. The view of Gmünden from the lake is beautiful, and with its gently sloping green hills and woods in the back ground, and its neat white houses, rising as it were out of the water, forms a strong contrast with the rugged mountains which surround the lake on every other side. Whilst crossing over, the scene continually changes, the Alps presenting themselves from different sides; and on turning the promontory on which Traunkirchen is situated, we entered as it were upon another small lake, and discovered the town of Ebensee, about three miles off, quite at the end of it. The Traun here flows into the lake, and often brings with it a considerable quantity of wood, which is collected by a long _cordon_, formed of the trunks of fir-trees joined together, and drawn across the end of the lake. Ebensee has very large salt-works, which afford employment to the greater number of its inhabitants. Post-horses were here again put to the carriage, and we drove on along the banks of the Traun through most enchanting scenery to Ischl, and from hence to Aussee, over a very steep mountain, on the sides of which I found, whilst walking up it, many of our prettiest garden flowers, cyclamens, anemones, &c. &c. After ascending for an hour and a half, we entered Styria, passing the boundary of Upper Austria, and came to the snow, through which we pursued our way for half an hour more, when we found ourselves on the top of the pass, between 4000 and 5000 feet above the level of the sea, environed by Alps clad in deep and for the most part eternal snow. Our road down was cut through the snow, which was much deeper on this side than on the other. Aussee is a little town, beautifully situated at the bottom of a valley, surrounded on all sides by gigantic rocks; it also has, like Ebensee, extensive saltworks, the salt for which is furnished from the salt-mines in the adjacent mountains.