336 GEEMANY. 



(22,824 inhabitants), Kattotclfz (11,402 inhabitants), Gleiwitz (14,126 inhabitants), 

 and Tarnoivitz (7,243 inhabitants) are likewise of importance as mining and 

 manufacturing towns. Myslowitz (6,826 inhabitants) is an important railway 

 centre and customs station. 



Badbor {24,678 inhabitants), at the head of the navigation of the Oder; Leob- 

 schiïtz (11,425 inhabitants), in the midst of picturesque hills ; Nemtadt (12,515 

 inhabitants), on a mountain torrent; Oppeln (12,498 inhabitants), on the Oder; 

 and other towns lying outside the coal basin, nevertheless participate in its 

 industrial activity, and abound in factories of every description. The Neisse, 

 which rises in the Sudetes, flows past several towns of note. Glatz (12,514 

 inhabitants), a fortress close to the Bohemian frontier, occupies its upjDcr basin. 

 Neurode (6,497 inhabitants), on a stream of the Eulengebirge, has cotton 

 and flax mills. Frankoisfein (7,486 inhabitants) is situate close to the famous 

 but useless citadel of Silberberg, hewn in the live rock. Patschkau (5,461 inha- 

 bitants), on the Neisse, is a small manufacturing town. But the most impor- 

 tant place in the basin of the Neisse is that named Neisse (19,533 inhabitants), 

 after the river which flows past it. It is a fortress of considerable strength, 

 defended by a system of inundation. 



The Neisse almost doubles the volume of the Oder, which lower down is 

 joined by the Stober, near whose source lies the town of Kreuzburg (5,238 

 inhabitants). The Oder then flows past Brieg (16,438 inhabitants), the birth- 

 place of Ottfried Midler, and at Olilau (7,947 inhabitants) it approaches within 

 a couple of miles of the river of that name, which, rising in the Eulengebirge, 

 flows past Munsterberg (5,591 inhabitants) and Strehlen (6,289 inhabitants), 

 and then runs parallel with the Oder for a distance of 25 miles, as far as 

 Breslau. 



Breslaii (239,050 inhabitants) , the capital of Silesia, occupies a most favourable 

 position for commerce in the very centre of the country, and many important 

 high-roads converge upon it. It was one of the great markets of the Hanse, and 

 its fairs were visited by Euseians and Tartars, who there purchased the products 

 of "Western industry. To this day Breslau is the commercial centre of extensive 

 mining, manufacturing, and agricultural districts. As a grain mart it has few 

 superiors, and its trade in wool is very extensive. Industrial establishments of 

 every description, including beet-sugar manufactories, chemical works, cotton- 

 mills, and foundries, have sprung up around it. 



The old ramparts were razed by the French in 1807, and have been converted 

 into public promenades. Some of the new quarters of the town adjoining them can 

 compare with any others in Germany — colonnades, balconies, statues, and flower 

 beds contrasting most happily with the blackened factories in the vicinity. The 

 " Ring," or open place in the centre of the old town, is the most curious relic 

 of that kind which the Germans have inherited from the Slavs. The town-hall 

 is a remarkable structure of the fourteenth century, and the cathedral one of 

 the most peculiar Gothic edifices of Germany. Breslau has given birth to many 

 men of fame, including Wolf, the mathematician ; Schleiermacher, the philosopher ; 



