1037 



FRIESLAND. 



FHIULI. 



1093 



Zuiderzee at Lemmer. A great part of the surface is below the 

 level of the sea, and the provincial administration of the water-staat 

 exercises a watchful superintendence of the dykes, sluices, and canals, 

 for the maintenance of which the land-owners of the province pay an 

 assessment called a dyke tax. The lowlands near the coast, particu- 

 larly in the north-west, are mostly appropriated to the feeding of 

 cattle ; and the interior of the province, where the ground is some- 

 what more elevated, to the growth of corn. Frieslaud has no river of 

 any note, the principal are the Lawer which falls into the Lawer-see, 

 a small inlet of the North Sea, on the north-east coast ; the Boorn 

 in the centre, and the Kuinder and the Linde, which unite just before 

 their entrance into the Zuiderzee on the south of the province : 

 the first only is navigable for small craft ; the others are broad 

 rivulets of inconsiderable lengths. There are a multitude of small 

 lakes or ponds, the majority of which have been formed by extensive 

 diggings for turf, and are well stocked with fish. Of late years many 

 of them have been drained either in part or wholly, and converted 

 into polders. The principal occupation of the people is breeding 

 cattle, dairy farming, growing corn, fishing, and digging and preparing 

 turf for fuel. The stock of cattle is very numerous; above 5,000,000 Ibs. 

 of butter and 1,000,000 Ibs. of cheese (one kiud of which called 

 Kanter-kaas is in high repute) are annually exported, but the quality 

 generally is inferior to the cheese of the western provinces of Holland. 

 There are numerous flocks of sheep, but they are of an inferior breed, 

 and the wool is coarse. A great quantity of lambs are exported ; and 

 a considerable number of horses are bred : they are strong limbed 

 and ata nd high, and are much sought after as carriage horses, but like 

 most Dutch horses they are soft in the hoof. Swine are reared every- 

 where, and fed with a view to the production of lard rather than for 

 meat. The agricultural produce of Friealand is more than adequate 

 to ite consumption, and some corn is exported : the chief articles of 

 growth are wheat, barley, rye, peas, beans, flax,heinp, potatoes, buck- 

 wheat, and clover-seed.which last is exported largely. One of the 

 effects of the extensive cultivation of clover is that the honey of 

 Friesland enjoys great repute. Apples and plums are extensively 

 grown. There are few manufactures : they include wooden clocks, 

 woollen stuffs, linen, sailcloth, salt, paper, potatoe starch, spirits, 

 chicory, ironmongery, and tiles. Ship-building is also carried on. 

 Steamers ply between the towns on the west coast and Amsterdam, 

 and small iron steam-boats ply on the canal from Lemmer to Sneek 

 and Leeuwarden. The province is traversed by good roads. 



The inhabitants are principally Calvinists ; about one-ninth of the 

 population are Catholics. Their language has a greater similarity to 

 the German than the Dutch : in this respect indeed, as well as in 

 their dress and manners, they have retained much that was common 

 to their ancestors, the Frisians. In the larger towns Dutch is spoken. 

 Elementary instruction is afforded by nine special charity schools, and 

 in 264 other schools, in which poor children are taught gratuitously. 

 The number of savings banks in the province is six. Charitable insti- 

 tutions are very numerous, including no less than 53 hospitals, 7 work- 

 shops for employing poor artisans, and numerous other institutions 

 capable of affording relief to several thousand persons. There is also 

 a colony, called a ' Society of Benevolence,' for the employment 

 and maintenance of orphans, foundlings, and beggars. 



Friesland is divided into three circles, Leeuwarden in the north, 

 and Sneek and Herrenveen in the south. The chief town of the 

 province ia LEEUWARDEN. Bolwaart, a walled town, 8 miles S. from 

 Leeuwarden, has 4300 inhabitants, who manufacture woollen goods, 

 and trade in butter and other agricultural products. Franeker, on the 

 canal from Leeuwarden to Haarlingen, is an old well-built town, with 

 6200 inhabitants, a high school, a public library, botanic garden, and 

 tile manufactories. Haarlingen, a fortified sea-port on the Zuiderzee, 

 16 miles W. from Leeuwarden, has a population of about 8000, five 

 churches, a town-hall, and manufactures of sailcloth, gin, bricks, 

 paper, salt, &c., and a brisk foreign trade, especially to England, 

 whither steamers convey butter, cheese, fowls, vegetables, cattle, and 

 wooL Dokkum, a well-built town, with 3800 inhabitants, two churches, 

 a handsome town-hall, surmounted by a high tower ; manufactures 

 of beer, brandy, salt, &c., and a brisk trade in butter and cheese, is 

 situated on the ship canal above mentioned, 13 miles N.E. from 

 Leeuwarden, and 6 miles W. of Lawer Bay. Sneek, situated on the 

 canal between Lemmer and Leeuwarden, has two churches, about 

 7000 inhabitants, a town-hall, manufactures of pottery, linen, deals, 

 oil, Ac., and much trade in corn and butter. The district around 

 Sneek is very marshy. Stavoren, a decayed sea-port town, on the 

 most south-westerly point of Friesland, once the residence of the 

 Frisian kings, is now a mere village. Workum, a port on the Zuider- 

 zee, 13 miles S. from Haarliugen, has about 3200 inhabitants, chiefly 

 engaged in the coasting trade and the fisheries. Herrenveen, a market- 

 town, with about 4000 inhabitants, 17 miles S.E. from Leeuwarden, is 

 built in the midst of turf moors. 



The islands Schiermonikoog, Ameland, and Terschelling, which lie 

 off the north coast, belong to the province of Friesland. TerscheUing, 

 the largest of these islands, is about 16 miles long and 3 miles wide ; 

 it has a population of about 2500, who are engaged in fishing and 

 agriculture. Ameland is the subject of a separate article. [AMELAND.] 

 Schiermonikoog is 6 miles long and 2 miles broad; its population, 

 which is under 900, is engaged chiefly in fishing. All these islands 



rest upon banks which have but little water on them, being apparently 

 portions of the mainland submerged, intersected however here and 

 there by narrow intricate channels of considerable depth. 



Frieslaud is part of the territory inhabited by the ancient Frisians, 

 a people of Germany, who formed part of the nation of the Ingae- 

 vones. They were divided into Frisii Minores, who inhabited the 

 lands north of the island of the Batavi the present provinces of 

 Oberyssel, Gelders, and Utrecht, aud the greater part of the province 

 of Holland, inclusive of the Zuiderzee, which at that time was mostly 

 dry land ; and the Frisii Majores, who inhabited the land between the 

 Yssel, Ems, and the country of the Bructeri that is, the present 

 provinces of West Friesland and Groningeu. The old Rhine separated 

 them from the Batavi, and the Ems from the Chauci. According to 

 Tacitus ('Ann.' ii. c. 24) they were the most steadfast allies whom the 

 Romans possessed iu this quarter, but upon the Roman governor 

 Olennius making an attempt (A.D. 28) to treat them as subjects, they 

 rose in arms, massacred aud expelled the Romans, and razed with one 

 exception all their strongholds in these parts. (Tacit. ' Ann.' iv. 72, 

 73, xiii. 54.) In the 4th and 5th centuries they were in possession of 

 all the territory along the coast of north-western Germany from the 

 Schelde to the Elbe, and they allied themselves with the Saxons, 

 whom they aided in their conquest of Britain. Pepin, major-domo of 

 the Franks, put Radbod their king to flight, and wrested their western 

 lands from them between the mouths of the Schelde and the Rhine. 

 Charlemagne brought the eastern Frisians under subjection, and 

 appointed dukes over them, whose office subsequently merged into 

 that of chieftaiu (hauptling). The result of continued struggles for 

 the mastery between these chieftaius, who called themselves counts, 

 was, that count Edzard prevailed, and established himself hi that part 

 called East Friesland in 1458. In 1657 count Enuo acknowledged it 

 as a fief of the empire under the emperor Ferdinand, and was raised by 

 him to the dignity of a sovereign prince. The last prince died iu 1 744, 

 and by virtue of an imperial grant in 1690, Prussia took possession of 

 East Friesland. This province was wrested from her in 1 808, aud trans- 

 ferred to Holland ; in 1810 it became a province of the French empire ; 

 in 1813 Prussia recovered it, and in 1815 she ceded it to Hanover. 



The ancient Frisians resembled the Germans in their habits and 

 mode of living, and according to Tacitus, the only tribute they could 

 afford to pay the Romans consisted of skins. Their chief occupations 

 in ancient as in modern times was agriculture and cattle breeding. 



(Tacitus, Annah ; Wiarda, History of East Friesland.) 



FRIESLAND, EAST. [AURICH.] 



FRISCHES HAFF, a large shore-lake in the north of Prussia, com- 

 municating by a narrow strait with the Baltic, and lying to the south of 

 the Gulf of Danzig, from which it is separated by a long narrow spit of 

 land called the Frisehe Nehrung. Its length from north-east to south- 

 west is about 60 miles ; its breadth varies in different parts between 

 4 and 12 miles; and it occupies an area of about 310 square miles. 

 At the north-eastern extremity of the Frisehe Nehruug, opposite to 

 Pillau, there is a narrow strait, 12 feet deep aud 3000 feet wide, called 

 the Gatt. This passage was formed by an inundation of the waters 

 of the Haff in the year 1510. In consequence of the shallowness of 

 water in the Frisehe Haff, particularly in summer, no large vessels 

 can navigate it, and Pillau is therefore the port both of Konigsberg 

 and Elbing, cargoes being conveyed to and from these towns in lighters. 

 Among the numerous streams which find an outlet in this Haff, are 

 the Pregel, Frisching, Passarge, Baude, and two arms of the Vistula. 

 That the Frisehe Haff is not an iulet of the Baltic, as it is sometimes 

 called, is sufficiently proved by the name, which is descriptive and 

 means ' fresh-water sea.' 



The Frisehe Nehrung projects for about 40 miles- along the north 

 shore of the Frische Haff. Its widest part is hardly 3 miles across, 

 but the general breadth is under a mile. The portion of it west of the 

 Gatt belongs to the government of Danzig, and is in parts fertile, but 

 generally a hungry waste with a few hamlets inhabited by fishermen. 

 On the part east of the Gatt, which belongs to the government of 

 Kb'uig&berg, are the port of Pillau aud the little town of Fischhausen, 

 which lies on the north shore of the Haff. 



FRITH, or FIRTH, a term which corresponds to the ' fjord' of the 

 Danes and Norwegians, and the'fiordur' of the Icelanders, is pro- 

 perly used to indicate a narrow and deep inlet of the sea, especially in 

 a rocky and elevated coast. It is generally used in Scotland for the 

 3Dstuary of the more important rivers. 



FRIU'LI, one of the old provinces of Venice, now the most 

 eastern part of Austrian Italy, forming the province of Udine, is 

 bounded N. by the Carnic Alps, which divide it from the valley of the 

 Drave in Cariuthia ; N.E. by the Julian Alps, which divide it from 

 the valley of the Save ; N.W. by an offset of the Carnic Alps, which 

 divides it from the valley of the Piave in the province of Belluno 

 W. by the province of Treviso, from which it is divided by the 

 river Livenza ; S. by the Adriatic Sea ; and E. by the government 

 of Trieste or Littoral Istria. The former limits between Venetian 

 Friuli and the Austrian district of Trieste were marked by the river 

 Isonzo, but the boundary is now placed farther west, running from 

 Palmanova to the mouth of the Ausa, leaving out Aquileia and 

 Grado, which make part of the circle of Istria. [AQUILEIA.] The 

 boundaries of Italy on this side are not strongly marked by nature 

 the chain of the Alps does not approach near the sea and the main 



