72:. 



AUSTRIA. 



AUSTRIA. 



726 



in valleys some of which are of considerable extent, finely wooded, an 

 inferior to none in Europe for beauty of scenery and fertility. It : 

 full of lakes and natural pieces of water. In the more elevated region 

 the climate is raw and cold, but below them it is temperate and pure 

 no part of the province can be termed unhealthy. The highland 

 being generally covered with forests, timber is the chief Transsylva 

 niau produce ; gold, silver, iron, and rock-salt, and small quantities o 

 copper, lead, and precious stones are found in this province. In othe 

 respects Transsylvania is characterised by nearly the same class o 

 productions as Hungary. 



North of the Carpathians, which separate Hungary from Galicia, lie 

 the great Galician plain, gradually sloping from the mountains till i 

 opens upon the extensive flat of which a hill or river's bank seldom 

 relieves the monotony, and the distant North Sea and the Baltic form 

 the northern boundaries. Galicia though it contains many sandy 

 tracts is next to Hungary a principal granary of the Austrian states 

 and supplies large quantities of salt, some precious metals, and man; 

 other mineral and vegetable productions. Its soil is of very varie< 

 character : in the west, but more particularly in the vicinity of the 

 San, it in marshy and sandy and far inferior in all respects to the 

 eastern [arts of the province, which are watered by the Dniester an< 

 covered with a moist cold loam and beds of chalk. These beds are 

 intermixed with layers of granite, gneiss, and quartz, and here am 

 there rise from the surface into low hills ; and the Galician soil is 

 nowhere so productive as in the districts of Zloczoff and Stanislawoff 

 In climate Galicia is of northern temperature, for there are few parts 

 in which the cold influence of the Carpathian atmosphere is not sen 

 gibly felt : hence the grape and most other fruits do not generally 

 ripen. In general character Cracow may be included with Galicia, as 

 it i now incorporated politically. Its chief agricultural products are 

 corn, flax, and some fruits. There are scarcely any manufactures, 

 Iron, coal, and marble are found. 



The south-western limits of Galicia adjoin the high mountain 

 regions of Austrian Silesia, a country as poor in grain as it is abun- 

 dant in pastures and timber, and known in common with Moravia and 

 Bohemia for its growth of flax and its linen manufacture!). 



South-west of Silesia lies Moravia, which compared with the adja- 

 cent regions of Hungary or Bohemia has a far milder climate ; it is 

 mountainous in its eastern, northern, and western districts, but low 

 and open towards the centre and south, the rich expanse of which has 

 been styled " a land of maize and wine." In this direction it presents 

 a line of rich and finely-cultivated plains ; but the remainder of the 

 province, occupying upwards of one half of its area, is intersected by 

 arms of the Sudetsch and Carpathian ranges, between which however 

 lie many fertile valleys. The greater portion of the province is from 

 480 to 900 feet above the level of the sea. 



West of Moravia lies the great ' Cauldron Plain ' of Bohemia, bound 

 in on every side by the granite-based chain of the giant Sudetsch 

 Mountains, the ' Riesen-Gebirge," the Moravian, Bbhmerwald, and Ore 

 (Erz-Gebirge) mountains, which send out their offsets into the interior 

 of the country. The heart of this kingdom presents a surface of 

 gentle undulations studded in many parts with lofty isolated eleva- 

 tions, and sloping from almost every point towards the central and 

 lowest part of Bohemia, the ' Valley of the Elbe.' This country lies 

 so high that it has scarcely a river which does not rise within its own 

 boundary or close upon it. The plain country which occupies its 

 centre is equidistant from the Baltic and Adriatic, and enjoys a mild, 

 regular, and healthy temperature ; but the climate is raw and variable 

 over the larger part of its surface, which is occupied by the highlands 

 and mountains. Bohemia is rich in animal, vegetable, and mineral 

 products ; and the arable and otherwise productive lands, although 

 nearly two-thirds of the surface are occupied by woods and forests, 

 extend over four-sevenths of the Bohemian territory. 



The Archduchy of Austria consists of two provinces : the ' lower 

 province ' is intersected on the confines of Styria by a branch of the 

 Noric Alps, and its centre by one of the smaller arms, the Cetian 

 Mountains, whilst the warm and fertile valley of the Danube traverses 

 this and the adjoining province for above 160 miles. The 'upper 

 province,' which forma the western part of the Archduchy, is a moun- 

 tain region the nouthern portion of which abounds in the lofty peaks, 

 glaciers, and valleys which distinguish the Noric Alps ; the northern 

 contains part of the less elevated summits of the Bohemian Forest 

 chain, or ' Bohmerwald-Gebirge.' The ' lower province ' is poor as a 

 com country ; but produces much fruit and wine, iron, silver, and 

 coals, and may in a manufacturing point of view be considered as the 

 Lancashire of Austria. The upper province, which includes the 

 Salzburg territory and contains in proportion to its extent more 

 rivers and lakes than any other district in the empire, has a soil which 

 in spite of the skill and unwearied industry of its inhabitants does 

 not yield grain enough for their consumption, though it raises large 

 quantities of fruit, hay, and oats ; a great quantity of salt is obtained, 

 as well as much iron, and some inconsiderable supplies of gold, silver, 

 lead, copper, and other metals. 



Styria, which the Archduchy bounds on the north, is completely 

 covered both in its northern and western districts by those majestic 

 arms of the Julian Alps known by the name of the ' Styrian Alps.' 

 The southern and eastern districts contain fewer lofty heights, and are 

 intersected by gentle hills, the spaces between which are often occu- 



pied by broad and well-cultivated valleys. The whole of the province, 

 which seems naturally to divide itself into Upper and Lower Styria, 

 is amply provided with rivers and streams, whence its rich pastures 

 and abundant crops of every kind of grain, of clover, vegetables, fruit, 

 and wines, and its fine races of horses and cattle. Few countries of 

 the same extent in Europe are more valuable for stores of salt, 

 iron, steel, and tin, and for works and manufactories. 



West of this duchy lies one of the most ancient possessions of the 

 crown of Austria, the earldom of the Tyrol, which in conjunction 

 with Upper Austria has been denominated the ' German Switzerland.' 

 The Rhxtian, or Tyrolese Alps, the most elevated mountains in the 

 Austrian dominions, which run through this province from the Grison 

 to the Illyrian frontier and meet the Noric on that of Upper Austria, 

 are scarcely less lofty than the Alps of Switzerland. The Feruer 

 Mountains traverse the Tyrol at an inferior elevation from the sources 

 of the Etsch, or Adige, in a direct north-easterly line to the valley of 

 the Ziller ; and the ' Mittel-Berge,' or mountains of middle elevation, 

 on whose more fertile surface 'the Alps look down, divide the Tyrol 

 into smiling plain and valley, whence the Tyrolese lowlands have 

 derived their appropriate name of ' thaler,' or vales, of which about 

 29 are dotted with town or village, and fertilised by the waters of the 

 Inn, Etsch, Brenta, and a number of other streams. The air is gene- 

 rally pure and keen, though in the south the effect of the sirocco is 

 partially felt. The chief products are horses and cattle, grain, wine, 

 fruit, potatoes, timber, salt, iron, copper, silver, lead, and a little 

 gold. 



Illyria, which touches part of the eastern borders of the Tyrol and 

 is composed of the duchies of Carinthia and Carniola, the territory of 

 Triest, Austrian Frioul, Istria, a portion of Croatia, and the Quarnero 

 Islands at the head of the Adriatic, ia principally of a mountainous 

 character. That portion which lies north of the Drave is traversed 

 by the Noric Alps which extend to the banks of that river ; south of 

 it, and next to the Italian frontier, the Carinthian range separates 

 the territory of the Save and Isonzo from that of the Drave ; and in 

 continuance of this range the Julian or Carniolan Alps run in a south- 

 easterly course towards Dalmatia until it is bounded by the Adriatic. 

 These regions are full of lakes (amongst others the celebrated Zirk- 

 nitzer in Carinthia, which wholly loses its waters at certain seasons), 

 of natural caves, and wild scenery. They are separated from the 

 Kusten-Land,' or maritime frontier districts, by what is termed the 

 Karst ' (from ' carso,' a desert), extending from Triest deep into the 

 circle of Adelsberg, and covered with numberless limestone hills, 

 jenerally unfavourable to vegetation, and exposed to the prevailing 

 north-easterly wind. The Kusten-Land itself, liable to incessant 

 tempests and burning heats, and by nature sterile and uncultivable, 

 would be a desolate waste but for the industry of its inhabitants, who 

 extort their precarious crops from the most perverse of soils. No 

 country can be more varied in climate than Illyria : in the north, 

 where so many of its mountains are capped with perpetual snows, a 

 >ure and bracing atmosphere conduces to health and exertion ; in the 

 south and east a hot sky, and in many districts noxious vapours, 

 render the country scarcely habitable except by the natives. No 

 ess varied are its products. Horses and cattle, flax, hemp, maize, 

 and buckwheat, the pure and semi-metals, coals and other mineral* 1 , 

 are raised ; and the vine, the olive, and the mulberry-tree grow 

 uxuriantly. 



The most southern province of the Austrian dominions is Dalmatia, 

 a. narrow strip of country far more favoured by nature than the 

 neighbouring territory of Illyria, but comparatively unproductive, 

 wing to the ignorance and indolence of the people. It has a long 

 ine of coast, washed by the Adriatic, and studded with numerous 

 roods, harbours, inlets, and islands : its interior and its eastern 

 onfines are traversed by branches of the Dinaric Alps, here termed 

 be Wellcbit, or Morlachian Mountains, and a few offsets of the Julian, 

 many of which are of considerable elevation. Besides these, there are 

 he Montenegrine Mountains, encircling the spacious gulf of Cattaro. 

 toth the high and low lands of this province are in general of lime- 

 ;one formation, uncultivated, and abounding in forests ; where the 

 ierka, the more southerly Cettina, and other inconsiderable streams 

 rater the soil, it might be rendered productive. In climate it is 

 talian, seldom visited by snow, but exposed to the cold north wind, 

 nd to the insalubrious exhalations from the marshes along its shores, 

 "he numerous islands which line the coast, many of which are near 

 nough to it to form narrow straits, or as they are termed canals, 

 ossess a naked rocky soil, are only partially inhabited, and of little 

 se except for fishing, and feeding sheep and goats in summer. The 

 lief products of Balmatia consist of marble of excellent quality, 

 ine, oil, figs, almonds, wax, horned cattle, sheep, salt, and more 

 articularly fish. 



At the north-western extremity of the Adriatic, bounded by the 

 )fty chain of the Alps on the north, and by the Po along the whole 

 ne of its southern frontier, lies the spacious plain which forms the 

 irger portion of the modern kingdom of Lombardy and Venice, one 

 ' the richest appendages of the Austrian crown. The Rhostian 

 Ips, which stretch eastward from the Lago di Como, form a lofty 

 airier between Switzerland, part of Tyrol, and Lombardy ; they 

 xteud southward to Monte Pellegriuo, where the Carinthian Alps 

 !gin, and in their course encircle and traverse the whole northern 



