54 



AGRICULTURE OX THE RHINE 



sion of labour, amidst numerous and active competitors. 

 The German is still in that kind of dependence on the 

 soil which apparently secures subsistence, and conse- 

 quently independence, even if accompanied by poverty. 

 In these and other districts, where the population has 

 rapidly, of late, accumulated, the peasants are in a state 

 of transition from the one position to the other. 



The population of the counties of Berg and Mark ap- 

 proaches that of the most densely peopled parts of Great 

 Britain. 



Berg. 



Mark. 



Population. 

 Circle of Dusseldorf . . . .67,781 



„ Solingen 57,978 



„ Elberfeld .... 104,532 



Lennep 60,320 



Duisburg 85,627 



Hagen 62,097 



„ Iserlohn 34,469 



Bochun 43,930 



„ Dortmund 42,555 



Per Eng. 

 Sq.Mile. 

 . 457 

 . 594 

 . 940 

 . 542 

 . 350 

 . 404 

 . 272 

 . 294 

 . 250 



On reaching Barmen and Elberfeld the traveller has 

 the choice of following the line of the new railroad to 

 Diisseldorf, or taking the hilly post-road to Cologne 

 by Remscheid, Solingen, and Burtscheid. On the line of 

 the railroad the country presents much the same appear- 

 ance that it does between Hagen and Barmen, but grows 

 more decidedly agricultural, and the holdings increase in 

 size as the railway recedes from the Wiipper. In the 

 hills of Remscheid and Solingen — the contrast between the 

 cheerful cottage cultivation we have described and some of 

 a very different description is striking. These hills present 

 to the eye a mass of round elevations intersected by deep 

 ravines. The small streams tbat run through the glens 



