318 GERMANY. 



Konigsberg ; the other at Fricdland-on-tJie-AUc (8,296 inhabitants), about the same 

 distance to the south-east of that town. 



Memel (19,796 inhabitants) is the only town in the narrow strip of land which 

 stretches northward between Russia and the Baltic. Ljdng far away from the 

 river after which it is named, near the Gut leading into the Kurische Haff, Memel 

 is a Russian port rather than a German one, and most of its trade is, iu fact, 

 Russian. It exports timber from the neighbouring forests, wheat, flax, and 

 hemp. Its factories, saw-mills, foundries, and machine shops work for the most 

 part on Russian account. Memel and Tilsit are the great entrepôts of the 

 merchandise which German merchants, with the aid of their Israelite confederates, 

 smuggle through the triple line of Russian custom-houses. Nearly all the manu- 

 factured articles used in Lithuania and Saraogitia have crossed the frontier 

 without paying the customs dues. Memel was the native place of Argelander, the 

 astronomer. 



The low tract which stretches from Memel to the Russian frontier is sandy, 

 and only produces stunted pines. Nimmersatt, the last group of German houses, 

 lies in a veritable desert. 



