240 



RUSSIA IN EUEOPE. 



down from the interior. To the west, on the Kurland Aa, here a considerable 

 stream, lies Mitau, capital of Kurland and former residence of the Duke, whose 

 name was so familiar in Europe when Louis XVIII. held his court here in 

 the beginning of the century. The vast ducal palace, planned in the style of 

 Versailles, stands in the midst of groves and lakelets. Mitau itself, occupied bv 

 the aristocracy, schools, and boarding-houses, is almost exclusivelv German, 

 although the surrounding district is entirely peopled by Letts, here somewhat 

 contemptuously called " Easterns.'* 



The river Windau flows by GokUngen to the Baltic at the little port of 

 Winâau, ovving to its dangerous bar less frequented than Liban, farther south, 

 whose harbour is formed by the lake known as " Little Sea," now connected 



Fig. 115. — LiBAU. 

 Scale 1 : 30,000. 



Half a Mile. 



with the Baltic by a canal. Being the southernmost of all the Russian Baltic 

 ports, Libau is free of ice three weeks earlier than Riga, and six weeks earlier than 

 St. Petersburg, and is now connected by rail with Vilna. Unfortunately the bar 

 at the mouth of the canal has little over 10 or 11 feet of water, and is constantly 

 changing its position and size. The yellow amber fishery south of Libau yields 

 about 5,000 lbs. yearly ; but amber is seldom found on the coast north of this 

 place. 



