271. TOWNS. The five largest in Switzerland are, (1) Geneva, population 42,000, manufactures watches; on the Rhone.

(2) Basle, population 38,000, on the Rhine.

(3) Berne, population 30,000, the capital, where the National Council sits.

(4) Lausanne, population 20,000, on the Lake of Geneva. (5) Zurich, population 20,000, on the Lake of Zurich; the principal University town.

SWITZERLAND (Abstract).

MOUNTAINS. Alps, Bernese Alps, Jura.
VALLEYS. Oberland, Upper Rhone, Engadine.

RIVERS. Rhine, Aar, Rhone, Inn.

LAKES. Geneva, Constance, Neuchatel, Zurich, Lucerne, Maggiore, Lugano.

TOWNS (with their population)—Geneva, 42,000; Basle, 38,000; Berne, 30,000.

Sect. XIII. GERMANY.

272. EXTENT.

Germany slightly exceeds France in area, and more considerably exceeds it in population.

273. BOUNDARIES. Germany is bounded on the South by Austria and Switzerland; on the West by France, Belgium, and Holland; on the North by the North Sea, Denmark and the Baltic; on the East by Russia and Austria.

274. ATTACHED ISLANDS. A few small unimportant islands in the Baltic.

275. CLIMATE. The climate of Germany is nearly the same as that of England, the winters being a little colder, the summers a little hotter, so that though no wine is made in England much is made in Germany. The south of Germany being generally higher land than the north is little warmer than it: indeed Bavaria is colder.

276. MOUNTAINS AND PLAINS, The whole of the north of Germany, from Holland to Russia, forms part of

I

the great plain of Northern Europe. It is on the whole dull and flat, in many places sandy.

From this plain the country generally rises as we proceed south, to the very southern frontier of Germany; the south of Bavaria being a high plateau abutting on the Alps. There are also several mountainous tracts in Central Germany, though the general level of the country is not so high. We may enumerate as having separate names :

(1) The Bavarian Alps on the frontier between Bavaria and the Tyrol.

(2) The Black Forest on the watershed between the Danube and the Rhine in Baden.

(3) The Bohemian mountains; in the East of Saxony there is a district known as the Saxon Switzerland, abutting on these.

(4) The Thuringian Forest; in the centre of Germany west from Saxony.

(5) The Eifel, extinct volcanoes on the left bank of the Rhine, north of the Moselle, resembling the Puys of Central France.

(6) The Hartz, the most northern group of German mountains, not far south-east from Hanover; and narrowing at this point the great northern plain of Europe.

277. RIVERS. (1) The Rhine, the national river of the Germans; enters Germany at the Lake of Constance, and flowing west thence to Basle forms the southern frontier of the empire. At Basle it turns north and flows by Strasbourg to Manheim, and thence to Mayence. lt receives the Neckar at Manheim, the Main at Mayence, both on its right bank. The plain of the Rhine from Mayence nearly to Strasbourg is wide and extremely fertile, and was known anciently as the Palatinate. The valley of the Rhine above this point from Strasbourg to Basle on the borders of Alsace and Baden is the warmest part of Germany; maize even is grown here. From Mayence to Coblenz is the most picturesque piece of the Rhine, which here flows in a narrow valley, hills 1,000 feet high coming up close to its banks. Below Coblenz the banks become rapidly lower, till below

Cologne the country becomes quite flat and the Rhine reaches its delta.

(2) The Main, which flows across the centre of Germany from east to west, and is considered the natural division between North and South Germany. After passing Frankfort-on-Main it falls into the Rhine at Mayence (Maintz).

(3) The Moselle, which rises in the Vosges and flows north by Metz to join the Rhine at Coblenz.

(4) The Danube, which rises in the Black Forest, and flows east by Ulm and Ratisbon into Austria. A large part of the plateau of Bavaria forms the upper basin of the Danube and was anciently called Swabia.

(5) The Neckar drains Wurtemberg and falls into the Rhine near Manheim. Its upper basin, together with part of the adjoining basin of the Main, forms the province anciently called Franconia.

(6) The Weser, with its tributaries, drains the north-west of Germany, falling into the North Sea below Bremen.

(7) The Elbe, emerging from the Bohemian ring of mountains, flows by Dresden and Magdeburg, and falls into the North Sea below Hamburg.

(8) The Oder rises in Austrian territory in the Sudetic Alps, but quickly entering Prussia, flows by Breslau to the North Sea.

(9) The Vistula only enters Germany from Russia in the lower part of its course, to fall into the North Sea at Dantzig. 278. LAKES. Germany possesses no lake of fame, except that Constance half belongs to it.

279. COMMUNICATIONS. Germany is excellently provided with railways; but the network converges on so many centres that no very satisfactory enumeration, even of the main routes, can be made.

(1) Berlin to Hamburg, Kiel and Denmark.

(2) Berlin to Bremen, Oldenburg.

(3) Berlin to Magdeburg, Hanover, Cologne (the express route for London).

(4) Berlin to Leipzig; thence to Frankfort-on-Main or to Munich.

(5) Berlin to Dresden; thence to Prague and Vienna. (6) Berlin to Breslau; thence to Cracow.

(7) Cologne, down the Rhine, a line on either bank, to Wesel; for Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

(8) Cologne, by Aix-la-Chapelle to Liege; thence to Brussels or to Paris (the express route).

(9) Cologne, up the Rhine, a line on either bank to Coblenz and Mayence; thence to Carlsruhe and Basle for Switzerland, or to Frankfort and Central Germany.

(10) Strasbourg to Carlsruhe, Stutgard, Ulm, Augsburg, Munich, Passau (the express route from Paris to Vienna).

(11) Mulhause, Basle, Constance. The Paris express to Mulhause is the direct route from Paris to the centre of Switzerland (Olten).

280. RACES OF MEN. Of the 41,000,000 people in Germany, 38,000,000 are Germans, 2,500,000 are Poles (in the east of Prussia), i.e., Sclavonians. Germany is the German fatherland, and the German is the type of the race called Teutonic. In South Germany the language and people are High-German, near the northern coast in the low country the language and people are Low-German; but there is little difference in these varieties. The Prussians proper were originally Sclavs and spoke a Sclavonic language, but every man who calls himself now a Prussian speaks German, and is in the main a Teuton.

281. HISTORIC SKETCH. The German Empire takes its date from A.D. 800, when Charlemagne was crowned at Rome by the Pope as Roman Emperor. His successors were unable to hold together the Empire, and thus it came about that the dominions of the subsequent Roman Emperors were Germany with so much influence in Burgundy and Italy as each Emperor might keep.

From the very first Germany was parcelled out. among a number of nobles, who had great independent power, each in his own principality; the Emperor was Overlord. After the Swabian line of Emperors ended in A.D. 1254, the power of the independent princes increased while that of the Emperor continually diminished, so that Germany

became split up virtually into a great number of petty principalities.

Prussia was in A.D. 1230 a non-Christian country, and the Emperor and the Pope despatched the Teutonic Knights on a crusade against it. The Teutonic Knights soon conquered Prussia and the adjacent coast of the Baltic northwards.

Albert II. of the House of Hapsburg was elected Emperor of Germany in A.D. 1437; and since his time down to the present century the title of Emperor of Germany was always held by an Austrian prince, though he usually had little influence as Emperor of Germany. The other princes of the Empire became independent princes, and each State has a history of its own.

The Hanseatic League of Free Towns reached its greatest development in the 15th century. In these troublous times the powerful commercial cities leagued themselves together for mutual protection against all comers, whether prince, emperor, or mere robbers. Such Free Towns were Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, and Frankfort; at that time there were fifty towns in the league.

Certain leading princes in Germany alone exercised the right of voting in an election of the Emperor of Germany; they took thus the title of Elector.

The Thirty Years' War, which ended in A.D. 1648, originally a war of the Reformation, ruined Germany and left it a helpless mass of principalities. Thus it remained till Napoleon's time, to fall temporarily a victim to him.

At the peace of 1815 a Germanic Confederation was formed; the Duke of Austria gave up the title of Emperor of Germany altogether. The old principalities were reformed as far as practicable. Much the two most powerful States of the new confederation were Prussia and Austria. This confederation lasted till 1866, but it never worked as a national German confederation to any purpose at all.

In A.D. 1866 Prussia conquered Austria, and annexed to herself (either absolutely as Hanover, or as subsidiary states as Saxony) the whole of Germany north of the Main. In A.D. 1871 the Germanic Empire was revived, King William