of the provincial government was transferred from Presburg to this place.

Brunn, the capital of Moravia, is at the conflux of the Schwarsaw and the Surtawa, tributaries of the Danube.

Trieste lies on the N. E. part of the Adriatic, called the gulf of Trieste. The harbor is well fortified, and the trade considerable. It contained, in 1801, 23,633 inhabitants.

Schemnitz, the largest of the mine-towns in Hungary, lies between hills, in a long valley. The inhabitants are 22,241 in number. Manufactures and Commerce. Vienna, perhaps, equals any other of the cities in manufactures, which are chiefly of silk, gold and silver lace, cloths, stuffs, stockings, linen, mirrors, porcelain; with silver plate, and several articles in brass. Bohemia is celebrated for beautiful glass and paper. The linen manufactures of Bohemia amount, annually, according to Hoeck, to 16,000,000 florins, beside some in wool and in cotton. The woollen manufacture at Lintz employs 30,000 persons; and in the whole archdutchy there are 7 great manufactures of cotton cloth, which employ 140,000 persons. But the commerce of the Austrian dominions chiefly depends upon their native opulence; Austria proper and the southern provinces producing abundance of horses and cattle, corn, flax, saffron, and various wines, with several metals, particularly quicksilver from the mines of Idria. Bohemia and Moravia are also rich in oxen and sheep, corn, flax, and hemp; in which they are rivalled by the dismembered provinces of Poland. The wide and marshy plains of Hungary often present excellent pasturage for numerous herds of cattle; and the more favored parts of that country produce corn, rice, the rich wines of Tokay, and tobacco of an exquisite flavor, with great and celebrated mines of various metals and minerals. The Austrian territories in general are so abundant in the various necessaries and luxuries of life, to be found either in the north or south of Europe, that the imports seem to be few and inconsiderable. The chief exports are from the port of Trieste, consisting of quicksilver and other metals, with wines and various native products. Dr. Townson gives a table of the exports of Hungary for one year, from which it appears that they consisted chiefly of cattle, hogs, sheep, flour, wheat, rye, wool, and wine, carried to other Austrian provinces; and only about one seventh part sent to foreign countries.

Climate and Seasons. The climate of Austria proper is commonly mild and salubrious, though sometimes exposed to violent winds, and the southern provinces in general enjoy delightful temperature, if the mountainous parts be excepted.

Face of the Country. The appearance of the various regions subject to Austria is rather mountainous than level, presenting a striking contrast in this respect to those of Russia and Prussia. The general face of the Austrian dominions may be pronounced to be highly variegated and interesting; and the vegetable products of both the north and south of Europe unite to please the eye of the traveller.

* Busching, vi. 549. See Hoeck.

Soil and Agriculture. The soil is upon the whole fertile and productive, in spite of the neglect of industry, which has permitted many parts of Hungary, and of the Polish provinces, to pass into wide forests and marshes. The latter country, particularly in many places, exhibits few symptoms of an inhabited and still less of a civilized region. Were skill and labor to assume the axe and spade, those very parts might display the greatest exuberance of fertility. The state of agriculture in Moravia is superior to the rest, being improved by Flemish farmers.

Rivers. After the Danube, which has already been described, the river next in consequence is the Teis, which falls into the Danube W. of Belgrade, after a course of about 420 miles. At Belgrade the Danube receives the Save, which forms a boundary between Austria and Turkey. That of the Drave joins the Danube below Esseg. The Inn joins the Danube at Passau with a weight of water nearly equal to that stream, after a course of about 250 miles. It is now only a frontier of Austria, and that but for a small distance.

The Mulda joins the Elbe near Melnick, after passing through Prague. The Morau, passing by Olmutz, joins the Danube W. of Presburg.

Lakes. The lakes in the Austrian dominions are numerous, and some of them of considerable size.

Mountains. The provinces of Carinthia, Carniola and Upper Austria present many considerable chains of mountains.

The Carpathian mountains, that grand and extensive chain, which bounds Hungary on the N. and E. have been celebrated from all antiquity. This enormous ridge extends in its whole circuit about 500 miles. The highest summits of these mountains, according to Dr. Townson, do not exceed 8 or 9000 feet, and they are for the most part composed of granite and primitive limestone.

Mineralogy. There is scarcely a province of this extensive territory, from the frontiers of Bavaria to those of Turkey, which cannot boast of advantages in the mineral kingdom; and as it were by a destiny attached to the house of Austria, even the acquisitions in Poland contain one of the most remarkable mines in Europe, the saline excavations of Wielitska. The mines of Bohemia have been celebrated from ancient times.* Silver, copper, iron, quicksilver, lead, and garnets are found in different parts of the Austrian dominions.

But the principal mines in the Austrian dominions are situated in the eastern provinces of Hungary and Transylvania. About 40 miles to the S. of the Carpathian hills are the gold mines of Cremnitz; and 20 English miles further to the S. the silver mines of Shemnitz cities which have arisen solely from these labors, and thence called mining towns. Shemnitz is esteemed the principal. The academy here instituted for the study of mineralogy is highly respectable, and only rivalled by that of Freyberg in Saxony. Hungary contains mines of copper at Schmelnitz and Herrengrund, of

• Busching, vol. vi. 126. French edit, 8vo.

very rich antimony at Rosenau; and in different parts, of coal, salt, and alum. Saltpetre is also produced in considerable quantities: and natron or soda is found in a lake near Kismarja, towards the frontier of Transylvania.* But a minera! peculiar to Hungary, and as yet discovered in no other region of the globe, is the opal, a gem preferred to all others by the oriental nations. The opal mines are situated at Czerweniza. The hill, in which they are found, consists of decomposed porphyry; and they only occur at the distance of a few fathoms from the surface, of various qualities, from the opake white, or semi-opal, which is also discovered in Cornwall, to that utmost effulgence of iridescent colors which dis tinguishes this noble gem.

The mines of Transylvania and the Bannat are also numerous and valuable.

The salt mines acquired from Poland alone remain to be described. They are situated, as already mentioned, at Wiclitska, 8 miles to the S. of Cracow, being excavated at the northern extremity of a branch of the Carpathian mountains. The descent is by pits of great depths; and the galleries and chambers are of immense size, commonly supported by timber, or by vast pillars of salt, out of which material even subterraneous chapels are formed; but travellers have idly exaggerated the splendor and extent of the saline apartments.† The salt is of an iron grey color, sometimes intermingled with white cubes; and sometimes large blocks of salt appear imbedded in marl The purest sort is found at the bottom of the mine, and is sparry. The length of the mine is 6697 feet, the breadth 1115, and the depth 743. It has been worked above 600 years, and is apparently inexhaustible. Before the partition it yielded annually £97,222 sterling. But it has been less productive since.

SWITZERLAND.

Extent. THE length of Switzerland from E. to W. is about 200 miles; its breadth from N. to S. about 130. The contents, in square miles, are, according to Hassel, 15,755.

Boundaries. Bounded N. W. by France; N. by the Rhine and the lake of Constance, which separate it from the grand dutchy of Cleves, and the kingdom of Bavaria, both in Germany; E by the Tyrol, which is a part of Bavaria, by the kingdom of Italy, and by Piedmont; S. W. by Savoy.

Divisions. Switzerland formerly consisted of 13 cantons, with their allies and subjects. Several of the allied and subjected states have been annexed to France and Italy. The remainder have been formed into new cantons. The old 13 cantons retain their former names and extent, and are the first in the following table, taken from Hassel, and exhibiting the state of the country, in 1809.

• Journ. des Min. No. 2.

+ Coxe's Pol. i. 200.

Townson, 388.

The population is partly from a census, and partly from his catie

The following countries lately belonged, or were allied, to Switzerland; Geneva, now a part of France; Neufchatel, taken from Prussia by the French, now a dependency of France; the Valteline, annexed to the kingdom of Italy; and the Valais, to France. The situation of these various districts can best be learned from the map.

Historical Epochs. The chief historical epochs may be arranged in the following order:

1. The wars with the Romans; the subjugation of the Helvetii and Rhæti, and the subsequent events till the decline of the Roman empire in the west.

2. The conversion of the country to Christianity by the Irish. monks, Columbanus, Gallus, and others, in the beginning of the 7th century.

3. The commencement of the Swiss emancipation, A. D. 1307; and the subsequent struggles with the house of Austria.

4. The history of the reformation in Switzerland.

5. The insurrection of the peasants of Bern, in the middle of the 17th century.

6. The dissolution of the confederacy by the French invasion, A. D. 1798.

Religion. The inhabitants compose but two sects, Calvinists and Catholics. The former are the most numerous. The proportion is more than 9 to 7. The Calvinistic clergy were all on a level. The Catholics were subjected to one archbishop, and six bishops.

Government. A new constitution was established for them by the First Consul, in 1802. The government consists of two landammans, a senate, and a diet. The diet, composed of representatives from the cantons, meets annually; and, at the proposition of the senate, declares war and makes peace, ratifies treaties, and adopts, or rejects such laws, as less than two thirds of the cantons have approved. The senate consists of 2 landammans, 2 stadtholders, and 26. councillors. It names all public functionaries.

Aargau is a part of the old canton of Berne.
Tessino, formerly the Italian Bailliages.

Thurgau or Turgoria.

Pays de Vaud, or Waadt.

A deputation of the senate administers the government during a recess of that body.

This government was forced upon the inhabitants at the point of the bayonet.

Population. Hassel's general estimate is 1,638,000.
Army. The military force, in 1809, was 15,023 men.

There were then from 20 to 30,000 Swiss soldiers in foreign countries. France alone had 15,000; the rest were in England, Spain, and Holland.

Revenue. The revenue, in 1809, was stated by Hassel at $1,000,000 German guilders, or 555,500 dollars. Formerly it was computed at more than a million sterling. Bern is still the richest of the cantons, and is said to have large sums in foreign funds.

Manners and Customs. The houses of the Swiss are of wood, constructed in the most simple form, with staircases on the outside. The dress of the inhabitants, in most of the cantons, was regulated by sumptuary laws. In the rest, the changes of fashions were little regarded. The cleanliness of the houses, and of the people, was striking. Even the cottages conveyed a lively idea of neatness and simplicity, and impressed a pleasing conviction of the peasant's happiness. Each had its little territory distributed into a garden, a field, a meadow, and a pasture, frequently skirted with trees, and well supplied with water. The diversions of the inhabitants were chiefly of the active and warlike kind, such as running, wrestling, and shooting with the bow and musquet. The magis trates were exemplary in the punishment and prevention of petty offences, than which no surer method can be taken to preserve the morals of the community. The Swiss were intensely attached to their native country. The slightest circumstances reminded the absent soldier of the scenes of his infancy, and drew him back by an irresistible attraction to the streams and the valleys, the mountains and the forests, among which he had passed the happiest season of life. Such were the happy Swiss, before the French subjugated their country. What changes this sad event has produced are unknown to the writer.

Language. The French is spoken in the Pays de Vaud. The language called the Vaudois appears to have been confined to the valleys of Piedmont.

Literature. Switzerland boasts of many eminent names, as the reformer Ulric Zwingli, or Zuinglius; Conrad Gesner, born at Zurich in 1516, who published an universal library. Among the writers of the last century may be named Bernoulli, the mathematician, a native of Basil; Scheuchzer, the natural historian; Haller; John Gesner, the natural philosopher; Solomon Gesner, the poet; Bonnet, Hirzel, and Zimmerman, physicians; Rousseau, and Necker, natives of Geneva; Lavater, the physiognomist; Euler, the mathematician; and many others.

Education. Switzerland resembled Connecticut in the general diffusion of knowledge. The education of the common school was universally shared by the inhabitants. Religious instruction was communicated successfully every sabbath, and the inhabitants gen