GASTEIN, a beautiful and picturesque valley in the Austrian duchy of Salzburg, celebrated for its mineral springs. It is a side valley of the upper Salzach valley, and is about 25 miles long and 1∣ miles broad. It has an elevation of between 3000 and 3500 feet. Behind it, to the south, tower the mountains Malnitz or Nassfeld-Tauern, 7820 feet high, and the Ankogel, 10,700 feet high, and from the right and left of these mountains two smaller ranges run northwards forming its two side walls. The river Ache traverses the valley, and near Wildbad-Gastein forms two magnificent waterfalls, the upper, the Kesselfall, 200 feet, and the lower, the Bärenfall, 280 feet in height; and near these falls another called the Schleierfall, 250 feet high, is formed by the stream which drains the Pockhart-See. The principal villages are Böckstein, Hof-Gastein, and Wildbad-Gastein, and the population of the whole valley is about 3800. Hof-Gastein, with a population of about 1000, possesses gold and silver miues which in the 16th century yielded 1180 ß» of gold and 9500 0> of silver annually. They are now, however, much neglected and many of the old mines are covered by glaciere. The village contains a military hospital, and in the open platz there is a bust of the emperor Francis I. who, in 1828, caused a conduit of upwards of 5 miles long to be constructed for the purpose of conveying the mineral waters thither from Wildbad. Wildbad, the principal watering-place, is visited by upwards of 3000 persons annually, and among its visitors is the present emperor of Germany. The thermal springs, which were known as early as the 7th century, issue from the granite mountains, and have a temperature of 117° Fahr. They are made use of in cases of nervous affections, general debility, and skin ...