804 



GERMANY. 



lakes are more numerous and labj'rinthine than in any other portion of this 

 region. If Masuria is " rich only in stones," as a local proverb says in allusion to 

 the poverty of its inhabitants, it is no less true that it abounds in meadows and 

 forests, reflected in the translucid water of four hundred and fifty lakes. Many 

 of these lakes are sinuous and elongated, like rivers dammed up at their mouth. 

 Several are connected by rivers or narrow channels, and some discharge themselves 

 in opposite directions. All these lakes shrink slowly, partly owing to the alluvial 

 soil which is deposited in them, and partly on account of the channels of their affluents 

 becoming deeper. In some cases it is the small lakes in the side valleys which are 

 drained first ; in others it is the lake in the main valley which disappears. The 

 river Warthe presents an instance of the latter kind. It is accompanied on both 



Fig. 173. — The Warthe akd its Lakes. 

 Scale 1 : 310,000. 



15 Miles. 



sides by a multitude of small lakes, placed perpendicularly towards it, and resem- 

 bling in every respect the lakes and limans of the Kilia mouth of the Danube, and 

 of the Black Sea coast to the north of it. 



The draining of these lakes is not, however, left solely to nature. The peasants 

 frequently drain them, at least partly, by deepening their outlets. They are also 

 made serviceable to navigation, and lying pretty much on the same level (383 

 feet), some of them have been joined by a canal without locks, extending from 

 Angerburg to Guszianka, which is of great service for exporting the products 

 of the forests. Another canal, 77 miles in length, connects the lakes to the south- 

 east of Elbing. It has a uniform level of 325 feet, and descends towards the 

 Frische Ilaff by a series of " shoots," up which barges are made to ascend by an 



