192 



PRUSSIA. 



Prussia. (Riesengebirge.,} between Bohemia and Silesia, passes 

 * v -" <' through Bohemia, and washing Dresden, Wittenburg, 

 and Magdeburg, falls into the German Ocean be- 

 low Hamburg, not far from Heligoland. It receives 

 the waters of several tributary rivers, the Moldau in 

 Bohemia, the Eger from Franconia, the Milde, the 

 Saale, the Havel, and the Spree, after it has entered 

 the Prussian territories. From Magdeburg it forms 

 only one stream. It is navigable for small vessels as far 

 as Leutmentz in Bohemia, nearly a hundred miles 

 farther than Dresden. Its navigation, however, is much 

 interrupted, and rendered expensive by the numerous 

 tolls and restrictions imposed by the sovereigns of the 

 different territories through which it flows. These du- 

 ties have been much diminished since the late peace; 

 but notwithstanding them, there is probably no river 

 in Europe that exhibits a more busy and commercial 

 aspect than the Elbe, 500 vessels continually plying on 

 it, chiefly from Hamburg to Magdeburg. The Oder 

 has its origin in Moravia, and passing by Ratibor, 

 Breslau, Frankfort, and Stettin, flows into the Baltic 

 by three mouths, forming two islands Usedom and 

 Woliin. It is navigable as far as Ratibor, about 87 

 miles south-east of Breslau. It receives several second- 

 ary rivers, the chief of which is the Wartha, which, by 

 means of a canal, unites the Oder and the Vistula. The 

 Vistula takes its rise in the Carpathian mountains, and 

 flowing nearly due north washes Cracow, Warsaw, 

 Plock, and Thorn, and discharges itself into the Baltic 

 at Dantzick. It begins to be navigable at Cracow ; 

 and, while it intersects Prussia, it forms at the same 

 time the great channel tor the conveyar.-ce of corn and 

 other products from the interior of Poland. These 

 are the most important rivers. Those of inferior note, 

 including the tributary streams, are extremely numer- 

 ous, some of them very large, and all of them naviga- 

 ble in a greater or less degree. The Pregel in East 

 Prussia runs past Konigsburg, where it is 300 feet 

 wide, and empties itself into the Frisch HafF. The 

 Niemen, or Memel, forms the boundary between Prus- 

 sia and Russia, and flows past Tilsit into the Baltic. 

 The Spree washes Berlin, falls into the Havel, a tribu- 

 tary stream of the Elbe, and by means of canals unites 

 the Elbe and the Oder. The Rhine, the VVeser, and 

 the Ems, though connected with Prussia, belong rather 

 to Germany. All the rivers, as well as the shores of 

 the Baltic, prpduce fish in great abundance and va- 

 riety. 



Canals. Nor, while rivers are numerous and useful, are canals 

 unknown, to connect the different portions of the king- 

 dom with each other/ as rivers connect all parts of it 

 with the sea. In the eastern extremity of the kingdom 

 there are two large canals, one that connects the Pre- 

 gel and Memel rivers, and another which stretches 

 from the Pregel to the Vistula. The canal of Brom- 

 burg unites the navigable river Brahe to the Neta, 

 which falls into the Wartha, which last stream, like- 

 wise navigable, joins the Oder. And as we have al- 

 ready mentioned that the Oder and Elbe are connect- 

 ed, partly by the Spree and partly by a canal, there is 

 evidently a line of communication by means of canals, 

 running at right angles with the rivers from the east- 

 ern almost to the western extremity of Prussia, or a dis- 

 tance of about 800 miles. There are also various other 

 canals of minor importance, but all of them of great local 

 benefit. 600 barges, of thirty tons each, besides smaller 

 boats, continually ply on the Bromburg canal, which 

 *erves to unite the Vistula and the Oder ; and the ca- 



nals which connect the Oder and the Elbe exhibit a Prussia, 

 still more busy and commercial appearance. No coun- '""V"" 

 try can boast of such advantages ; and they are such 

 as, with the industry and energy which characterize 

 the Prussians, cannot fail soon to raise them in point of 

 internal resources to a level with the most opulent na- 

 tions of Europe. 



Prussia, from the level nature of the country, may Lakes, 

 be expected to contain numerous lakes. This indeed, 

 as stated above, is the fact in an eminent degree, par- 

 ticularly in the eastern provinces, in Pomerania, and in 

 Brandenburg. In East Prussia there are, it is reckon- 

 ed, 300 lakes, of which the Spelding See is the largest, 

 being twenty British miles in every direction ; there 

 are 160 in West Prussia; and no less than 680 in 

 Brandenburg. The name of Werder, as Marienwerder, 

 which is of frequent occurrence,, particularly in West 

 Prussia, signifies a drained marsh or land surrounded 

 by water ; a fact that indicates that lakes were more 

 abundant in former times than at present. Lakes are 

 more or less common in every quarter of the kingdom ; 

 and the rivers, from the laziness of their currents, fre- 

 quently stagnate, and spread their waters so wide, of- 

 ten many miles, that the space thus occupied may with 

 propriety be regarded as a lake. The estuaries of the 

 Oder, Vistula, and Memel, form large maritime sheets 

 of water, termed in German Raffs. Thus at the mouth 

 of the Memel is the Curisch Haff; at that of the Vis- 

 tula Frisch Haff, (with another inland creek called the 

 lake of Drausen,) as that of the Oder is the Grass Haff. 

 This last is thirty-six miles long, and from one to nine 

 in breadth ; the Curisch Haff is sixty miles in length, 

 with a mean breadth of ten miles ; while the Frisch 

 Haff is seventy miles in length, with a breadth varying 

 from three to ten. There are other Haffs of an inferior 

 size : they are nearly all filled with fresh water as their 

 supplies come from the land, and their connexion with 

 the sea is by a very narrow outlet. None of them is 

 deep ; but they are all navigable to vessels of a greater 

 or less size. 



The climate of Prussia is not remarkably favourable ; Climate, 

 for though considerably various in the several provinces, 

 it is in general moist, cold, and ungenial. This is oc- 

 casioned by the number of marshes, the extent of fo- 

 rests, and the inundations of the rivers and of the sea, 

 of which we have already spoken. Rain is also very 

 common not only during the winter, which in some 

 places las^s about eight months, but even in autumn, 

 sometimes making dreadful devastation. In the east- 

 ern districts, and along the shores of the Baltic, cold 

 predominates to a degree unknown in the same latitude 

 of the Netherlands or of England ; a circumstance 

 which is accounted for by the reasons ah eady stated, 

 and from the prevalence of easterly winds blowing 

 along the bleak surface of Russia. In the western and 

 middle provinces the climate is uncommonly mild and 

 genial, and not inferior, if not superior, to what we en- 

 joy in Britain. The heat on the sandy plains of Bran- 

 denburg is often quite intolerable ; and so great a va- 

 riety is there in the several divisions of the kingdom, 

 that in some parts summer seems to have arrived, when 

 in others the inhabitants are experiencing all the rigour 

 of severe winter. There are no endemic diseases in 

 any quarter of Prussia, and many instances of longevity 

 occur ; yet the climate is not remarkable for great sa- 

 lubrity, the deaths averaging 2 in 69, or one male in 

 33, and one female in 36. In England, it may be re- 

 marked, the proportion of deaths between 1810 and 



