the river Isar rushes between immense mountains, and forms a continual descent until the plains of Bavaria open to view, you may conceive with what rapidity we went.  We encountered several falls of water of two, three, four and sometimes five feet which we had to shoot, which no boat could possibly do without being upset.  The lower part of the raft was frequently under water in making these shoots and we were obliged to hold on fast to our seats to prevent being jerked off.  Nothing can be more romantic and picturesque than this journey, and there is something aweful in shooting these falls; these rafts are, however, so solidly constructed that there is no danger whatever.  They can neither sink nor upset.  We arrived and halted the evening at Toelz, a large village or town on the right bank of the Isar.  What gives to Toelz a remarkably singular appearance is, that on a height at a short distance from the town, and hanging abruptly over the river, you perceive several figures in wood, larger than the life, which figures form groups, representing the whole history of the passion of Jesus Christ.  At a short distance, if you are not prepared for this, you suppose that they are real men, and that a procession or execution is going forward.  On landing I immediately ascended this hill in order to observe this curiosity, and there I beheld the following groups, first:  Christ in the midst of his disciples preaching; secondly:  the disciples asleep in a cave, and Christ watching and praying; next was Judas betraying Christ to the soldiery; then the judgment of Christ before Pilate; then Christ bearing his cross to the place of execution; and lastly the crucifixion on Mount Calvary.  The ground is curiously laid out so as to represent, as much as possible, the ground in the environs of Jerusalem.  Toelz is a pretty village, but contains nothing more remarkable than the above groups.

The next day at twelve o’clock we perceived the spires of Munich, and at two anchored close to one of the bridges from whence, having hired a wheelbarrow to trundle my portmanteau, I repaired to the inn called the Golden Cross—­Zum goldenen Kreutz.  At Toelz the Rhetian Alps recede from the view; the landscape then presents a sloping plain which is perfectly level within four miles of Munich.  The river widens immediately on issuing from the gorges of the Tyrol and for the last five miles we were followed by boys on the banks of the river, begging for wood, with which our raft was laden, and we threw to them many a faggot.  Wood is the great export from the Tyrol to Bavaria, as the latter is a flat country and has not much wood, with which on the contrary the Tyrol abounds.  A sensible difference of climate is now felt and the air is keener than in the Tyrol.  The price of a place on the raft from Mittenwald to Munich cost only one florin, and at Toelz an excellent supper, bed and coffee in the morning cost me only one florin.