306 



GERMANY. 



years, and recent observations confirm his assertion. The fact is sufficiently 

 accounted for by the destruction of forests, the greater extent of land cultivated, 

 the increase of artificial canals for purposes of navigation or irrigation, and the 

 larger quantity of water used in towns and factories. Perhaps there has also taken 

 place a diminution in the rainfall. Floods are higher and more disastrous than 

 formerly, but they do not compensate for the low water in summer. Careful 

 measurements made along the Elbe leave no doubt in that respect. 



The changes which the impoverished rivers of Germany have undergone in 

 recent times cannot compare with those which are recorded by the geological 

 history of the country. In order to obtain some idea of the latter we need only 

 examine those portions of the Elbe, Oder, or Vistula which are not yet confined 

 between embankments, and where river arms and deserted river channels form a 

 veritable labyrinth around islands and sand-banks. The increase of population 

 and agriculture no longer admits of rivers freely wandering over the countr3\ 



Fig. 175. — Diminution in the Volume of the Elbe for each Month of the Year. 



According to Wex 



J:iiiii»i-j Febiuary N.inh April 



Ausii^L !S(^|>li*iulier Orloltc 



iilli'i- Ufi'i'inlio 

 Mnr. Ri'ila< 



The undefined lands which bound them are gradually being drained and brought 

 under cultivation. 



Of the three great rivers of Northern Germany, the Elbe is by far the most 

 important as a navigable highway. On crossing the German frontier it becomes 

 navigable, and, thanks to the care devoted to it, it remains so for nearly the whole 

 year, until it discharges itself into the sea below Hamburg. Since 1870 no tolls 

 have been levied upon the vessels traversing it. 



The estuary of the Elbe differs essentially from the mouths of the Baltic rivers, 

 for it communicates directly with the sea, instead of discharging itself into a lagoon, 

 and the tide ascends it for 102 miles. Formerly it gradually grew wider as it 

 approached the North Sea, the distance from coast to coast amounting to 12 miles, 

 at high water. But a great deal of land has been embanked along the left shore, 

 including the island of Krautsand, which was uninhabited in the sixteenth century, 

 but is now covered with fields and houses. So great is the volume of the Elbe, that 



