BOHEMIA, MOEAVIA, AND AUSTRIAN SILESIA. 



137 



The large towns, sucli as Prague, Briinn, and Troppau, have attracted an extensive 

 industrial population ; but the great manufacturing region, the Bohemian Lan- 

 cashire, lies on the Upper Elbe, and its centre is Reichenberg. This district 

 leads up to the gateway of the Giant Mountains, and is traversed by the high- 

 road connecting Vienna with Berlin. Strategically it is of great importance, 

 and the hills upon which was fought the battle of Sadowa rise within it. Farther 

 to the east, through the valley of the Morava, passes the high-road which connects 

 Vienna with Breslau, Danzig, Warsaw, and Central Russia. • 



Tow^NS. 



Bohemia. — Prague (Praha, Prag, 223,000 inhabitants*), the capital of Bohemia, 

 is one of the fine cities of the world. Humboldt considered it inferior only to Lisbon, 



Fig. 84. — Prague and its Environs. 

 Scale 1 : 200,000. 



5 Miles. 



IN'aples, and Constantinople, and none can look without pleasure upon this " town 

 of the hundred towers," with its castellated heights of theHrad8hin,its fortress of 

 Vyêehrad, and its bridges spanning the lake-like Vltava, with its verdant islands. 

 Prague lies in the very centre of Bohemia, and only Leitmeritz, below the con- 

 fluence of the Eger and Elbe, and above the gorge leading through Bohemian and 

 Saxon Switzerland, occupies a geographical position at all comparable with it. 

 Prague, however, offers far greater facilities for communicating with the countries 

 lying outside the mountain ramparts of Bohemia, and its natural advantages are 

 aided by a network of railways converging upon it. Next to Vienna and Buda- 

 Pest, Prague is the most populous city of the empire, ranking far above every 

 other town of Bohemia. 



The " Old City," in the centre of modern Prague, abounds in historical 



* In 1875, 120,000 Slavs, 88,000 Germans, 15,000 Jews. 



