

RHINE. 



t)u> Crison*. mini thrw chief sources. The first comes 

 from the mountain called Crispa It, north-east of the 

 St (Milliard, ami unite-; at DisstMitis with the second, 

 which comes frniii the Liicmanian mountain : both 

 unite witJi die thinl, which comes from a glacier in 

 the untiiiiuiiii of Aclula. about twenty leagues distant 

 fnuii II* icheimu, the point of confluence of all three. 

 The r.ver In-re takes the name of Rhine, and is 

 :.rt wi.le. It passes through the Bodensee 

 (lake of Constance, q. v.). From Reichenau to 

 Mask- it is navigable at intervals, sometimes only 

 by rafts. Before it falls into the lake of Constance, 

 it forms the cataract of Schaffhausen, in the canton 

 of /'inch, where the river is closely compressed by 

 rocks and falls with great fury eighty feet. After 

 having traversed or touched several cantons of 

 S\viucr!:md. also Austria, Baden, France, Bavaria, 

 IltxMH, Nassau, Prussia, and the Netherlands, it 

 divides into several branches. Hardly has it en- 

 tered Holland (at Emmerich), when it sends off to 

 the left a considerable branch, the Waal, which 

 joins the Metise at Woudrichem. Somewhat lower 

 down, a little above Aniheim, on the right, a 

 branch is formed which occupies the bed of a canal 

 constructed by Drusus ; this is the New-Yssel, 

 which, after having joined the Old-Yssel, at Does- 

 burg, takes the name of Yssel, or Over-Yssel, and 

 empties into the Zuyder-Zee. Arrived at Wyk-by- 

 Duurstede, twenty-seven miles east of Arnheim, the 

 Rhine divides into two branches ; one of which, 

 the chief continuation of the river, is called Lech, 

 an.l joins the Meuse : it forms on its right the Ned- 

 er-Yssel, which also joins the Meuse ; the otlujr 

 branch, formerly the most considerable, but now 

 small, is now called the Crooked Rhine (Kromme- 

 n/iyn), and takes its course to Utrecht, where 

 'tgain it spirts: the north-west branch is called 

 V'echt, and empties into the Zuyder-Zee ; the other 

 western branch, called Old Rhine (Oude-Rhyri) 

 empties into the North sea, two leagues from Ley- 

 den. It formerly disappeared in the downs of Kat- 

 wyk, formed in 860 ; but it has been conducted by 

 a canal from Leyden to the sea. The most import- 

 ant rivers which flow into it are, the Aar, Kinzig, 

 Murg, Neckar, Maine, Nahe, Lahn, Moselle, Erft, 

 Ruhr, Lippe : the most important places on the 

 banks are Constance, Schaflhausen, Basle, Spire, 

 Manheim, Worms, Mentz, Bingen, Coblentz, Bonn, 

 Cologne, Dusseldorf, Wesel, Emmerich, Arnheim, 

 Utrecht, Leyden. The whole basin of the Rhine 

 is about 130 leagues long, and 100 leagues wide, 

 where it is the widest, and comprises about 10,000 

 square leagues. The canal of the Rhone and 

 Rhine unites these two rivers by means of the 

 Snoiie ; the great canal of the North uniting the 

 Rhine with the Meuse and the Nethe, and thus with 

 the Scheldt. In the article Danube, we have 

 spoken of the projected canal which was to unite 

 the Danube and the Rhine, the Black sea, and the 

 Northern ocean. 



The Rhine furnishes excellent salmon (called 

 Lachse when they ascend the river in spring, corn- 

 in? from the sea, and Sulmen when they descend in 

 autumn to the sea), sturgeons, lampreys, pikes, and 

 nt carps. 



From Strasburg to Spire the Rhine is about 1100 

 feet wide ; at some parts of the Rheingau, it is 

 1800; at Cologne, 1300. At Schenkenschanz, 

 where it enters the Netherlands, it is 2150 feet 

 wide. Its depth from Basle to Strasburg is be- 

 t i-en ten and twelve feet ; at Mentz, twenty-four ; 

 at Dusseldorf, fifty. When the snow melts in 

 Switzerland, the Rhine rises from twelve to thirteen 

 feet above its common level. The mean descent 

 of the river is about seven feet a mile ; its current 



runs nlxiut 288 feet in a minute, or about three and 

 a third miles per hour. Vessels of from ,'iOO to 

 450 tons go up the river to Cologne, those of 125 

 to 200 to Menlz, those of 100 to 125 to Strasburg. 

 Steam-boats and "water-diligences" render com- 

 munication easy. The congress of Vienna, in 1815, 

 declared the navigation of all the German rivers 

 free; but this ordinance has not been carried into 

 effect as regards the Danube, and it was not till 

 after fifteen years' negotiation between the various 

 powers, and after 563 protocols had been drawn up 

 on the subject, that the navigation of the Rhine was 

 made free, in the year 1831. 



Three books contain every thing necessary for a 

 journey along the Rhine : one, by Lange, compre- 

 hends the journey from Mentz to Dusseldorf, the 

 most romantic part south of Basle ; another, by 

 Aloys Schreiber, comprehends the whole course of 

 the Rhine, with excursions into neighbouring parts; 

 the third is by Ch. A. Fischer Newest Guide from 

 Mayence to Cologne (Frankfort, 1827). There 

 exist excellent representations of the scenery. of the 

 Rhine, semi-perspective and semi-topographic, very 

 ingenious productions, which afford the traveller 

 the highest gratification. See, also, the Panorama 

 of the Rhine, from Mayence to Cologne, by Delko- 

 kamp (Dresd. and Frankf., 1825, in eighty engrav- 

 ings), also Primavesi's Course of the Rhine from its 

 Sources to its Mouth, drawn from Nature (,1818), 

 and Historico-Statistical Panorama of the Rhine, 

 from Bingen to Coblentz, by Dahl (Heidelberg, 

 1820). Aloys Schreiber's book contains a cata- 

 logue of all the works on the Rhine, or relating 

 to it. 



RHINE ; one of the eight circles of Bavaria, 

 commonly called Rheinbaiern, separated from the 

 rest of the kingdom, on the left bank of the Rhine. 

 It is chiefly composed of the former French depart- 

 ment Mont-Tonnere. The Mont-Tonnere, 2100 

 feet high, is the summit of the Vosges, which tra- 

 verse the circle. Inhabitants, 517,081 ; square 

 miles, about 3000. 



RHINE, DEPARTMENTS OF THE UPPER AND 

 LOWER. See Department. 



RHINE, CONFEDERATION OF. See Confederation 

 of the Rhine. 



RHINE, LOWER, (in German, Niederrhein], a 

 Prussian province, with the title of grand-duchy, 

 formed by the congress of Vienna, in 1815, contain- 

 ing 1,127,297 inhabitants and 6100 square miles, 

 embraces both banks of the Rhine, and is bounded 

 by the Prussian provinces of Juliers-Cleves-lierg 

 and Westphalia, by Nassau, Hesse-Darmstadt, 

 France, the Netherlands, and several smaller terri- 

 tories. The Hundsruck (q. v.) traverses the pro- 

 vince of the Lower Rhine between the rivers Nahe 

 and Moselle, and joins the Vosges. The Eiffel 

 and the High Veen are ridges of hills coming from 

 the Ardennes. The province furnishes game, fish, 

 grain, fruits, flax, hemp, wine, wood, silver, iron, 

 copper, lead, calamine, marble, slate, sand and mill 

 stones, basalt, tufa, porphyry, alum, sulphur, coals, 

 and mineral waters. In some parts much manu- 

 facturing industry exists. Much cloth is made in 

 and near Aix-la-Chapelle. The other manufactures 

 are linen, silks, leather, iron and steel wares. The 

 inhabitants are mostly Catholics ; in the southern 

 part French is spoken in some places. The pro- 

 vince is divided into three governments Aix-la- 

 Chapelle, Treves, and Coblentz. Aix-la-Chapelle 

 is the chief place. The province comprehends the 

 chief part of the ancient archbishopric of Treves, 

 the abbeys of Prum, Cornely-Munster, Malmedy, 

 part of the old archbishopric of Cologne, of the 

 duchy of Luxemburg and Juliers, &c. 



