G E R 
462 G E R 
This town is alfo rondered famous by the battle fought 
in i', on the 4th of O ctober, 1777. 
GitR'MANTOVVN, a polUtown of the American 
States, and capital 01 Stokes county, North Carolina. 
It is fituated near the Town Park of Dan river, and 
contains a court-hou fe and gaol: 528 miles fbuth-weft 
by foutii of Philadelphia. 
GLR'iVIANTOWN, a town of the American States, 
in riyde county, Newbern diltritl, North Carolina. 
GP/R'MANY, one of the ntott celebrated countries 
of Kiirope, fituated nearly in its centre, and famed for 
Itaving originally peopled, and given its laws, manners, 
and culfoms, to mod: of the otlier nations in its vicinity. 
Yet, notwithflanding this pre-eminent celebrity, it is 
the mod perplexed, in its government :md fubordina- 
tion, of any region on the furface of the globe ; the 
grand dates, or circles, being now interwoven and almod 
antiquated, wliile no modern or rational divifion has 
lince taken place. Its ancient extent was much more 
confiderahle than it is at prefent; which the rcaider will 
readily perceive, by referring to the article Geocra- 
p. 373, and 395, of this volume. 
Germany, conlidered in its modern limits, extends 
about fix hundred Britifli miles in lengtii, from tlie ifle 
of Rugen in the nortli, to the fouthern limits of tlie 
circle of Audria. 1 he modern breadth, from the 
Rhine to the cadern boundary of Silefia, is about five 
hundred Britidi miles: anciently the breadth e.xtended 
beyond the Vidula, about two hundred miles more to 
the eaft; a fpace filled by the Poles, a Slavonic nation; 
and lince divided between Audria, Rufiia, and PrulTia. 
'J Ids country ajipears to have been full of extenfive 
foreds, even in the Roman period ; and of courfe to 
have been in many parts thinly peopled; yet tliere are 
faint indications tliat the Cimbri, or Celts, poflefled fe- 
veral tradts in the, foutli, as they certainly held a large 
portion of tiie north-wed. On the north-ead of Ger- 
many, tlie l iimifh nations long preceded tlie incurfions 
of the Goths and Slavonians. It alfu appears that the 
central parts of Germany were very little known to the 
ancients. The fouthern and wedern didridts, as bor¬ 
dering on the Roman empire, had been partially e.x- 
plored. Roman Ihips had navigated the Baltic, and 
Roman arinies had vilited the northern courfe of-the- 
Jtlbe; but the centre ajid the eaft long remained un¬ 
known. The Roman arms had penetrated nearly in a 
direction due eaft, to the neared circuit of the Elbe 
near Magdeburg, in which quarter the trophies of the 
Roman general Drufus were erected. On the fouth, 
the Sudetic mountains, and perhaps the'Erzgeberg, 
feeni to bound the knowdedge of the ancients; while 
through the centre of Germany, from the Rhine to the 
Vidula, extended the vad Hercynian fored, by Hedia, 
Tfiuringia, and the north of the Sudetic and Carpathian 
mountains. 'J'he mountain Melebocus of Ptolemy I'eems 
to be the fame with tlie Brudterus of other writers, re- 
pre'enting the mod northern mountains of Germany ; 
thofe ot the ilartz, and the Semana Sylva, may alfo be 
fought near the courfe of the Roman army towards 
Magdeburg. The interior of the country certainly re¬ 
mained in a great meafure unexplored, till the age of 
CluirJemagne ; and the northern parts for feveral cen¬ 
turies after that period. 
1 he fupreme authority in Germany has been long 
that of an cleflive monarch ; but its future dedinatioa 
in this refpeCt can only be unbof'omed by-time. The 
manners, culfoms, and dialedts, vary according to the 
ditterent dates. The Saxon is accounted the purefl 
and mod claliical idiom of the German tongue ; and the 
fouthern dialedts of Swabia, Bavaria, and Auftria, are 
the molt uncouth. 
The Audrian and Pruliian dominions include mod of 
tlie eaftern provinces of (iermany. The welteru part 
is /laturally divided into two portions by the river 
Maine. To the north of theMaine, Germany cliiefly 
prefents wide fandy plains, which feem as if they had 
been, in the fird agCs of theivorkl, overwhelmed by the 
feai A few hills fird begin to appear in the neighbour- 
Iiood of Minden ; and in the foutli of the Hanoveiiait 
dominions arife the mod: northern mountains of Ger- 
many, thofe of Blockfoerg, and others in the Hartz. 
To the fouth-wed are the mountains of Heflia, extend¬ 
ing towards the Rhine ; while on the eaft the rich and 
variegated country of Saxony, one of the mod beau'ti. 
fill and fertile in the empire, extends to the fouthern 
limits of the mountains of Erzgeberg, abundant in 
mines and rich follils. 
The regions to the fouth of the Maine are for the 
mod part mountainous. Both portions are watered by 
niunerous and important rivers. In the nortli the Elbe 
is tlie mod didinguiflied, rifingin the Sudetic mountains 
ot Silefia ; and, after running fouth for about fifty miles, 
it fuddcnly afuimes its dedination of north-wed, receives 
the Bohemian Mulda and Eger, the Mulda and Sala of 
Saxony, and the large river Havel from the eafl, and 
enters tlie fea near Cuxhaven, after a comparative courfe 
of more tlian five hundred Britifh miles. The chief ci¬ 
ties on the banks of the Elbe are Drefden, hleifl'en, 
Wittenberg, Magdeburg, from which it runs almofl a 
folitary dream to Hamburgh. The tide is vifible tq the 
lieiglit of twenty-two ipiles ; and, when railed by the 
north wind, middle-fized vefTels may work up to Ham¬ 
burgh ; but tliey are in general obliged to anchor a mile 
below the city. 
Not far to the wed is the moutli of the Wefer, which 
fird receives that name when its tvyo fources, the Werra 
and tlie Fulda, join near Munden in the principality of 
Calenburg, about fixteen Britifh miles foutli-vved of 
Gottingen. Tlie Werra fprings in tlie principality of 
Hildburghaufen ; and the Fulda in the territories of the 
bifliopric fo called ; the former liaving the longeft 
courfe, and being judly conddered as the chief fonree 
of tlie Wefer, which thus flows about 270 Britifli miles. 
The principal towns on this river are Bevern, Minden, 
and Bremen ; the Rhine alone boafling of numerous 
cities on its banks. The chief tributary dream is the 
Aller, from the duchy of Brunfwic. The inundations 
of the V/ef'er are often terrible, the adjacent towns and 
villages feeming to form iflands in the fea : hence the 
fliores are edeenied unhealthy. 
Tlie Enis is an unimportant river, w liich rifes in the 
bifliopric of Munder. Tlie fources and mouths of the 
Rhine have in all ages been celebrious. 'I bis noble 
river forms tlie grand ancient barrier between France 
and Germany ; and its courfe may be computed at 
about fix liiuidred Britifli miles. On the German fide 
it is diver.fified with mountains and rocks ; but from 
Bak'l to Spire t.he fliores are flat and nniiitereding. 
NearMentz they become rich, variegated, and grand ; 
and on the confluence with tjie Maine the waters arc 
didinguifliable for many leagues. Tlie Riiinegaw is not 
only'celebrated for its wines, but for the romantic ap¬ 
pearance of the country, the river running through 
I’piral rocks, crowned witii majedic callles. Hence as 
far as Bonn the fhores abound with beautiful and Itriking 
ohjedts, the Rhine not feeming to alluinc its rugged 
grandeur till after its junftlon vvith the Maine. 
ill the fouthern part of Germany the mod important 
river is the Danube, w liich according to fome geogra¬ 
phers riles near the little tow.n of Donefehingen in 
Swabia ; but others place the fources a little turther to 
the north. This noble dream becomes navigable a little 
above Ulm, where it receives the lller. '1 lie ne.xt tri¬ 
butary dream is the Lecii, wliicii comes from the Tyrol, 
didiiiguilhed in the annals of the revolutionary war; as 
is tlie Her, proceeding from Upper Bavaria. The Da¬ 
nube runs about 250 miles througii tliis part ot Ger¬ 
many, pafliiig by Ulm, Ratiibon, and Paflau, To Or- 
feva 
