Greenwich, and lat. 45° 30', by six mouths, or rather seven, as there is an island in the fourth branch. The Delta of the Danube commences at a small distance above the fortress of Ismael, and is 50 miles in breadth from the Vizi to the Kilia. Only two of these mouths are navigable, the rest being choked up with sand-bars. Its whole course is 1,400 British miles, without including its turnings and windings. From its source to Passau, a distance of 280 British miles, it is chiefly a Bavarian river. From Passau to Orsova, a space of 630 miles, it is an Austrian river; and from Orsova to its mouth, nearly 500 miles more, it is a Turkish river.23 Between Buda and Belgrade, the Danube is so broad and deep, that men of war may navigate the stream; and naval engagements have frequently taken place here between the Turks and Christians. Where there are no islands, the stream is fully a mile broad, opposite Wallachia; and between Giurgewo and Rudschuck, it is fully two miles broad, as we are informed by Dr. Clarke who crossed it at that place: and the northern branch which passes by Ismael, is deep, rapid, and 560 yards broad. Twenty British miles below the fortress of New Orsova, are the ruins of Trajan's bridge, one of the most splendid remains of Roman architecture. It was all of dressed stone, and contained 20 arches, each of them 150 feet above the level of the stream, 60 feet in breadth, and 170 feet of span, making the length 4,600 feet in whole; and was built where the river was narrowest, and of course where it was most rapid, which renders the fabric still more stupendous and amazing, on account of the almost insurmountable difficulties which must have been encountered in laying so large a foundation. The architect was Apollodorus of Damascus, who formed the square, and erected the column of Trajan at Rome. This bridge was destroyed by the orders of Hadrian, Trajan's successor, lest the barbarians on the northern banks should by means of it facilitate their incursions into the Roman provinces on the south of the river. The Danube is called the Ister by Herodotus, who appears to have known as much concerning the lower course of the river and its oblique direction towards Scythia, or the modern Bessarabia, as the most perfect geographer of our day, according to Major Rennel. It 23 The most northern bend of the Danube is at Ratisbon, in 49° 3′ N. latitude, according to Thomson, and 48° 56′ according to Pinkerton and Arrowsmith; but its course on the map, after it enters the Turkish territories, is deplorably inaccurate, for the want of observations of latitude and longitude. No two maps, even though drawn by the ablest geographers, can be found to agree respecting this part of its course. According to some, the most south-eastern point is a little below Vidden; according to others at the mouth of the Alauta, opposite Nicopolis. According to Rennel, Pinkerton, Arrowsmith, and the large map of Hungary and Transylvania, the most south-east point of its course, is 44° 25 N. latitude; according to the map published by the imperial academy of St. Petersburg, and the map of Turkey in Thomson's Atlas, the junction of the Danube and the Alauta is in lat. 43° 40', thus making a difference of 45 minutes, or 52 British miles. By Rennel, in his map of Western Scythia, by Pinkerton, Thomson, and Arrowsmith, the most northern mouth of the Danube is in E. long. 29o, and Bender is in 29° 46′ E. longitude; while, by the Russian maps, and Guthrie's Geography, the Danube enters the Euxine in E. long. 3005', and Bender is fixed in 30o 25', or 50 miles farther east from the same meridian. The fact is, that no survey has been made of the course of the Danube from Vidden to Ismael; and till that be done, we may get new maps, but shall find the old errors faithfully copied. So faithfully indeed have errors in geography been perpetuated in maps, that the course of the Danube was, till very lately, extended 27 degrees of lon gitude; while it is only 22 degrees of longitude from its source to its mouth, even sup posing the latter to be in 30° E. long.; and only 21 degrees, if in long. 29o. And what is worse, degrees of longitude have been identified with those of latitude, in estimating the length of the Danube, by making each of these degrees 60 geographical miles; thus extending the course to 1,620 geographical miles, or 1,860 British miles. was at Isaksi, just above the point where the branches of the river commence, and 30 miles above Ismael, that Darius Hystaspes passed over in pursuit of the flying Scythians; but the bridge which he then laid was afterwards broken down, to prevent the Scythians from repassing the river and harassing his retreat, The Danube is liable to great inundations, particularly when the ice breaks up. The Rhine.] The Rhine, like the Danube, is not a German river throughout for the first sixty miles of its course, it is purely a Swiss stream. Passing through the country of the Grisons, it runs for the space of fifty miles between the Vorarlberg, the western extremity of the Tyrol, on the E., and the cantons of Glarus and Appenzel, on the W.; then turning its course to the N. W., it runs through the Lake of Constance. Hence it runs almost due W., to the city of Basle for the space of 80 miles, separating, in this part of its course, the territories of the grand duke of Baden on the north from the canton of Thurgovia on the south, and the canton of Schaffhausen from that of Zurich. At Schaffhausen, the river is near 400 feet broad; two miles and a half below, there is a cataract 50 feet in perpendicular height, and at Fauffenberg, 24 miles farther below, is another great cataract of 40 feet. Before it arrives at Basle, it receives the confluent stream of the Aar and the Reuss, and several smaller but rapid rivers from the southern side of the Schwarzwald or Black Forest; so that at Basle—where the Rhine begins its long northern course-it is a deep, broad, and rapid river. From Basle to Lauterburg, a space of 110 British miles, it forms the boundary between France and Germany. The country traversed in this part of its course may be compared to a deep valley, bounded by the Vosges on the W., and the Alps of Suabia on the E.; comprehending an extent of 50 miles of medial breadth, by 110 miles in length. From the Vosges, and the Suabian Alps, a multitude of short but rapid rivers descend in opposite directions, and swell the stream of the Rhine, as the Wies, the Eltz, the Kintzig, the Renchin and the Murg on the east: the Ills, the Zinzel, the Sauffel, the Sorr, the Motter, and the Lauter, now the French and German boundary on the west. Between Kehl and Strasburgh, there is a stately wooden bridge, 3,900 feet in length, over the Rhine. This structure is supported in the middle by an island, on which there is a strong castle. From the Lauter, as far as Cleves, the Rhine is entirely a German river, for the space of 260 British miles in direct distance. The Erlebach, the Queich, the Spirebach, the Seltz, the Nahe, with a multitude of smaller streams descending from the Hundsruck, fall into the Rhine on the western side; while on the east, it receives at Manheim the large stream of the Neckar, and at Mentz, the Maine, a still more copious river. At the confluence of the Rhine and Maine, the waters of the two rivers are distinguishable for many leagues; and the shores become grand, rich, and variegated. The Rhinegau, extending from Mentz to Bacharach, is not only celebrated for the excellence of its wines, but for the romantic appearance of the country, which is here "A blending of all beauties: streams and dells, Fruit, foliage, crag, wood, corn-field, mountain, vine, From gray but leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells." Hence, as far as Bonn, the shore abounds with beautiful and striking objects, the Rhine not seeming to assume all its grandeur till after its junction with the Maine. At Coblentz, it receives the Moselle, a large river rising on the western side of the Vosges; and running a N. E. course, till at Coblentz it falls into the Rhine, which in its farther progress to the north, receives the Lahn, the Sieg, the Wipper, the Rhur, and the Lippe, from the east; and the Erfft, opposite Dusseldorff, on the west. From Bingen, at its confluence with the Nahe, the Rhine must be regarded as a Prussian river, the Prussian territory on the west of the Rhine extending along its western bank, a space of 170 British miles, and 125 miles along its eastern bank. During the remainder of its course, from its leaving the Prussian territory, till it enters the sea at Catwyck, below Leyden, a direct distance of 100 British miles, it is wholly a Dutch river. Its length of comparative course, may be estimated thus: From its source to the confines of the Voralberg, 60 miles; from the Voralberg to the city of Constance, 75 miles; from the city of Constance to Basle, 80 miles; from Basle to Lauterburg, 110 miles; from Lauterburg to Bingen, 90 miles; from Bingen to where it leaves the Prussian dominions, 170 miles; thence to the North Sea, 100 miles; total, 685 British miles.24 The basin of the Rhine, or the country over which its branches extend, includes an area of 70,000 English square miles, and is inhabited by 14,000,000 of persons. The navigation extends without interruption to Schaffhausen, 500 miles from the sea, but above Manheim, it is much obstructed by islands and shoals. From the sea to Cologne, a distance of 160 miles, there are ten or twelve feet of water; and the river, deriving its water chiefly from the melting of Alpine snows, is deeper in summer than in winter. Cogan informs us, that from Cologne to Mentz, a distance of one hundred miles, the river is navigated by shallow vessels of 100 or 150 feet long, by 30 or 40 feet in breadth, and drawing about five feet water, which are sometimes tracked, and sometimes impelled by sails. From Mentz up to Basle, nearly the same depth might be obtained; but the numerous shoals, islands, and rocks, render the channel intricate. Were a short canal made at Schaffhausen, so as to avoid the fall, the line of inland navigation for small sailing vessels, might be extended to the head of the Lake of Constance, and the produce of the Alpine valleys of Switzerland and Bavaria, might be conveyed by water to Holland or England. Its larger branches too, the Maes, the Moselle, the Maine, the Neckar, &c. are generally navigable to some distance from the mouths. Were such a magnificent natural canal---says a writer in the Scotsman, to whom we are indebted for this interesting note---placed in the midst of fourteen millions of Englishmen or Americans, it would be the theatre of the most multifarious and animated internal commerce on the face of the globe. But the people want enterprise, capital, and a commercial spirit; and, what is still worse, they are parcelled out among half a score of different princes, who harass the trade of each other's subjects by imposts and retaliatory restrictions; and who all unite in oppressing the foreign trader by heavy exactions. "Nothing," says Riesbeck, "displays the constitution of the German empire in a better light, than the navigation of the Rhine. Every prince, so far as his domain on the banks extends, considers the ships that pass as the vessels of foreigners, and In the 12th and 13th loads them without distinction with almost intolerable taxes. So centuries, the princes of the Rhine compelled the emperors to give them so many customs as to make every city a custom-house: originally all the customs belonged to the emperors, but the want of men, money, and other services, obliged them to part with most of them to purchase friends. While the anarchy lasted, every one took by force what was not given him by free will, and at the peace, they found means to keep posIn the small district between Mentz and Coblentz, session of what they had stolen. which, with the windings of the river, hardly makes 27 (German) miles, you don't pay less than nine tolls! Between Holland and Coblentz, there are at least sixteen. Every one of these seldom produces less than 25,000 or 30,000 guilders a year." much is trade shackled by these vexatious imposts, that the exports of fourteen millions of people by the river, amount only to six millions of guilders, or £600,000, and the imports to forty millions or £4,000,000. This is marvellously little, when we recollect that the inhabitants of Rhenish Germany are among the most industrious and civilized in continental Europe, even though we allow (what is not probable) that half of the foreign trade of the country is carried on through other channels. The exports and As imports of Pennsylvania alone, with one million of inhabitants, exceed this sum. for the internal trade, which is equally burdened with the foreign, we have no estimate of its amount; but from the scattered notices to be found in travellers, we know that The Hudson, flowing through a it has long been in a languid and depressed state. country inhabited by less than two millions of people, was navigated by 2,000 sloops some years ago. We question if the Rhine has nearly as many at this day, and no less than 78 steam-boats plied on the Mississippi at a time (1823) when a single vessel of the kind had never been seen on the Rhine. The Ems.] The Ems is comparatively an unimportant stream, which, after rising in the bishopric of Paderborn, and running a N. W. and then a northern course of 150 British miles, falls into the sea below Embden. It is the Amisus of Tacitus, while Embden is the ancient Amisia. The Weser.] The Weser is an important stream, dividing Westphalia from Lower Saxony. It first receives the name of Weser, where its two sources, the Werra and Fulda, join near Munden, 16 miles to the S. W. of Gottingen. The comparative length of the Weser is 270 British miles. It enters the sea, after passing by Bevern, Minden, Bremen ; and has a broad and deep channel up the stream, as far as Bremen; a distance of 40 miles. Its chief tributary is the Aller, which rising in the duchy of Magdeburg, and watering the territory of LuneburgZell, falls into the Weser below Verden. The Weser is subject to dreadful inundations, the adjacent towns and villages then seeming to form islands in the sea, and hence its shores are deemed unhealthy. This river is the Visurgis of Tacitus. The Elbe.] Going farther east, we meet with the Elbe, or Albis of Tacitus, a much larger, more important, and commercial river than the Weser. This river, rising in the Sudetic mountains of Silesia, runs 50 miles in a southern direction, passing by Koningsgratz and Paardubitz; thence running 70 miles in a north-western direction, it joins the Moldaw near Melnick. The Moldaw, as it is the largest and longest stream, is the principal river. It rises in the S. of Bohemia, on the mountainous confines of the Upper Palatinat; and running 40 miles to the S.E., changes its direction to the N., and after a course of 120 miles farther, meets the Elbe at Melnick. The confluent stream, under the name of the Elbe, after receiving the Eger at Leitmeritz, and running a course of 40 miles farther, enters Saxony; and passing by Dresden and Meissen, enters the Prussian territories, a little above Mulberg. Thence it passes by Torgau and Magdeburg, receiving in its progress, the Saxon Moldaw, and the Saale. Proceeding N. E. it receives the large river Havel from Brandenburg; and leaving the Prussian dominions a little above Domitsch, it divides the Hanoverian territories from the duchies of Mecklenburg and Sachsen-Lauenburg; passes Hamburg, Altona, Gluckstadt, and enters the German Ocean, in N. lat. 54° 3'. At Hamburg, though 76 miles from the sea, the Elbe is more than 4 British miles broad, including the islands; and the tide ebbs and flows twice a-day, even several miles above the city. The comparative course of the Elbe is 575 British miles. Taking the Moldaw for the principal stream, it is an Austrian river for 200 miles through Bohemia; for the next 60 miles of its course, it is a Saxon river; for 190 miles it runs through the Prussian dominions; and for the remaining 125 miles of its course runs N. W., along the borders of the kingdom of Hanover. The Oder.] The Oder, the Viadrus of the ancients, rises in the mountains of Moravia, 15 miles to the N. E. of Olmutz; and running first S. and then E., separating the principality of Troppau in Austrian Silesia, on the north, from Moravia on the south, enters Prussian Silesia, after being joined by the Oppa, coming from Jagerndorf, on the N. W. and the Elsa, from the mountains of Jablunka, on the S. Thence it pursues a N. W. course, passing by Oderberg, Ratebor, Kosel, Oppelen, Brieg, Breslau, and Great Glogau. It then enters the New Marche of Brandenburg, waters the city of Frankfort, and being joined at Custrin by the Warta, a stream of equal magnitude with itself, coming from Po land on the east, runs N. through Pomerania, and discharges itself into the Baltic—after having formed a great fresh water lake, called the Grosse Haffe, by three mouths, called the Divonou, Swinemunde, and Penemunde, which form the two large islands of Usedom and Wollin. All the streams that descend from the southern side of the Riesen Gebirge, the Bohemian, and the Moravian mountains fall into the Oder. The compa rative course of the river is at least 400 British miles; but the Warta, or great eastern branch of the Oder, runs full 300 British miles before it joins its rival at Custrin; and as it pursues a more winding course, seems to be the longer river of the two. The Maine.] We must not omit the Maine, which, though only a tributary stream of the Rhine, is yet of too much importance to be overlooked in the general description of Germany, as it is the grand political boundary between the southern and northern States. It springs from the lake of Fichtel on the Fichtelberg. This source is called the White Maine, while another source is called the Red Maine, from the red clay through which it flows. This last source is near Haerleinsruth, in the principality of Bayreuth. The Maine, after receiving the Reduitz and other considerable streams, joins the Rhine, to the south of Mentz, after a winding course of 250 miles. The Adige.] The Adige, the smallest of the German principal rivers, has its own basin, but which includes only the southern part of Tyrol. It rises in the Grisons, runs through Tyrol, and only becomes navigable in Italy, where it flows into the Adriatic. Canals.] There are but few canals navigable for large boats in Germany; but a considerable number for small ones. The principal canals are, 1st, The canal of Holstein, which, by means of the Eider, unites the Baltic with the German Ocean; 2d, The canal of Plauen from the Havel to the Elbe; 3d, The canal of Finow for uniting the Havel and the Oder; 4th, The Frederic William's Canal, from the Spree to the Oder; 5th, The canal of Papenburg, uniting the Ems with the German Ocean; and 6th, The canal of Vienna, which is intended to connect the Danube with the Adriatic, but which is not yet finished. The project of uniting by a canal the Rhine and the Danube, which was conceived, and even commenced by Charlemagne, and submitted by general Dessoles to the attention of Bonaparte, when first consul, is now reviving on the continent. By the accomplishment of this project, a watercommunication would be opened between the countries of France, Germany, and Holland; and with Persia, by means of canals between the Black Sea and the Caspian. The canal is proposed to be begun at Kelheim on the Danube, near Ratisbon, where the Altmuhl falls into that river at right angles, and will form the bed of the canal. Lakes.] Germany has a great number of inland lakes; but none of very considerable size. The largest are the Lake of Constance, which partly belongs to Switzerland, and the Lake of Garda, which partly belongs to Italy; the Lakes of Chiem, Würm, and Ammer in Bavaria; of Traun and Halstadt in Austria; the Grosse Haffe and the Madüe in Pomerania; the lake of Ruppin in the Marche Brandenburg; the Müritz in Mecklenburg; the Duemmersee in Holstein; and the Steinhudermeer in Hanover. Small lakes and ponds are innumerable, particularly in the north of Germany. Mineral Waters and Baths.] Germany contains more mineral springs than all the rest of Europe. The waters of Spa, Pyrmont, |