BOHEMIA, MOEAVIA, AND AUSTEIAN SILESIA. 



129 



Carlsbad, Bilin, Pullna, and Sedlitz, whose curative properties annually attract a 

 host of visitors. 



The mountains of Bohemia and Moravia give birth to the three great rivers 

 of Northern Germany, the Vistula, the Oder, and the Elbe. The Vistula, when 

 first it escapes from its rocky cradle in the Beskids, irrigates the plains of Galicia 

 and Poland, whilst the Oder, only a short distance below its source in the Sudetes, 

 enters German Silesia. The Elbe alone grows into a formidable river before it 

 crosses from Bohemia into Saxony. It rises in a boggy swamp on the southern 

 slope of the Giant Mountains, and the whole of Bohemia, a few border districts 



Fig. 79. — Volcanic Mountains in Northern Bohemia. 

 According to Hickmann. 



i'30 



|I2° E.of Paris 



I3'50' 



4" 20' E.ofG. 



Basalt Sr VUnkatune. 



Porphyry ^ Mela^jhyre 



excepted, lies within its bounds ; whilst Moravia lies wholly within the basin of 

 the Morava, after which it has been named, and which is known to Germans 

 as the March ; and whilst the Elbe flows north towards the German Ocean, 

 the Morava takes its course towards the Danube and the Black Sea. 



The hydrographical nomenclature of the country is full of anomalies. The 

 Upper Elbe is far inferior in volume to its assumed tributary, the Moldau, or 

 Vltava. The latter is in reality the great arterial river of Bohemia, and a canal 

 connects it with the Danube and the Black Sea. The Upper Elbe, however, 

 flowing in the same direction as the united river below Kolin, has given its name 

 to the entire river system. 



The Upper Vltava and most of its tributaries flow through a region of bogs, 

 81 



