Part 112

THE MOUSE TOWER (Mäuserturm) is situated on a rock in the middle of the Rhine, near Bingen. It is notable from the legend of Bishop Hatto’s tragic fate.

THE NIEDERWALD, opposite Bingen, is the great National Monument commemorating the restoration of the German Empire in 1870-71. It stands 740 feet above the river, and consists of a colossal statue of Germania, 33 feet high, upon a sculptured pedestal 78 feet high.

Bingen

BINGEN is at the junction of the Rhine and the Nahe. The river scenery above Bingen is less interesting, though it is here the fertile and beautiful wine region begins. Rüdesheim, just across the river, has rich wines, far-viewing heights, wild legends, and a Roman fortress. On the heights is the Castle of Johannisberg, where Prince Metternich once lived. It is amid the best vineyards on the Rhine and commands a superb view. At Riebrich, opposite Mainz, is the beautiful palace of the Duke of Nassau.

Mainz. MAINZ, or Mayence, with its magnificent cathedral, has been both a German and a French town. Thorwaldsen’s statue of Gutenberg, the inventor of printing, stands near the Cathedral. The Electoral Palace is a rich museum of Roman relics and an important picture gallery. The city is a noted wine center and trade emporium.]

THE LOWER RHINE FROM COLOGNE TO THE SEA

At Bonn the river enters the plains, and almost immediately after passing the Netherlands frontier its delta begins. The principal arm, carrying two-thirds of the volume, flows under the name of the Waal, and later the Mermede, to Dordrecht, picking up the Maas (Meuse) from the left. At Dordrecht the river again divides for a bit, one branch, the old Maas, running out to sea; the other, the Noord, forming a loop by way of Rotterdam. The northern arm sends one branch, the Yssel, due north to the Zuider Zee; the other branch is the Lek, which runs into the Waal-Maas arm above Rotterdam.

A thin stream, called the “Winding Rhine,” leaves the Lek and splits at Utrecht into two channels, of which the Old Rhine, a mere ditch, manages with the help of a canal and locks to struggle into the North Sea at Katwyk, northwest of Leyden, while the Vecht flows due north from Utrecht to the Zuider Zee near Amsterdam. In the delta the streams have to be bordered by dykes.

THE RHINE IN EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

The Rhine was the Romans’ bulwark against the Teutonic invaders and was long a boundary between the province of Gaul and the German tribes. Under Charlemagne the Rhine valley became the focus of civilization. Except between 1697 and 1871 the Rhine was always a purely German river; at the peace of Ryswick, Alsace-Lorraine was appropriated by France, and the Rhine became part of the dividing line between France and Germany. In 1801 Napoleon incorporated the whole of the left bank with France; in 1815 the arrangement in force before 1801 was restored; and after 1871 the Rhine became once more wholly German. It has often been crossed by armies; twice by Julius Cæsar; again in the Thirty Years’ war, and in the wars of Louis XIV., the Revolution, and Napoleon. Its navigation was declared free in 1868.

The Rhine is connected by canals with the rivers Danube, Rhone and Marne. There is a railway along both its banks, but a steamboat is greatly preferable for viewing the incomparable course between Cologne (Köln) and Mainz (_Fr._, Mayence) as shown in panoramic form on preceding page. Its beauties are better displayed, also, at most points, in ascending the river than in descending it.

=THE DANUBE= (_Ger._, Donau), one of the most important rivers of Europe, and next to the Volga the largest, originates in two small streams rising in the Schwarzwald, or Black Forest, in Baden, Germany, and uniting at Donaueschingen, two thousand two hundred and sixty-four feet above sea level. The Germans occupy the entire upper basin, and portions of the middle and lower; the Slavs parts of both banks of the middle course; the Magyars the central portion of the valley; and the Roumanians the lower regions.

GENERAL COURSE OF THE GERMAN DANUBE

The river flows first southeast and then northeast to Ulm, one thousand, five hundred and nineteen feet above sea level. At Regensburg it reaches its most northerly point, and from thence its course is generally southeast. Between Regensburg and Vienna the banks of the river are frequently remarkable for their romantic beauty. At Tuttlingen it contracts and the hills crowd close to the banks, while ruins of castles crown almost every possible summit. The scenery is wild and beautiful until the river passes Sigmaringen.

THE AUSTRIAN DANUBE, FAMED IN HISTORY AND SONG

From Passau the Danube flows through Austria for a distance of two hundred and thirty-three miles. Closed in by mountains it flows past Linz in an unbroken stream; below, it expands and divides into many arms until it reaches the famous whirlpool near Grein, where its waters unite and flow on in one channel for forty miles through mountains and narrow passes. Between Linz and Vienna it is renowned not only for its picturesque beauty, but for the numerous historic buildings and ruins which crown its banks. The splendid Benedictine monastery of Melk, the ruins of Durrenstein, and the prison of Richard the Lion-hearted are among the most interesting.

Vienna, to defend the city against risk of inundation, the course of the Danube skirting it was, in 1868-81, diverted into an artificial channel. Similar works have been undertaken near Budapesth, in Hungary.

FROM VIENNA TO THE IRON GATE

After passing Vienna and Marchfeld, the river cuts through a defile formed by the lower spurs of the Alps and Carpathians and enters Hungary at the ruined castle of Theben, a little above Pressburg, the old Magyar capital. Here, again, it gives off a number of branches, forming a labyrinth of islands known as Schütten, but on emerging it flows uninterruptedly southward through wide plains interspersed with pools, marshes, and sandy wastes. The principal affluents here are the Save, the Drave, and the Theiss.

Sixty miles before entering Roumania the river passes through a succession of rapids or cataracts which it has made in cutting a passage for itself through the cross chain of hills which connect the Carpathian Mountains with the Alps. The last of these cataracts, at Old Orsova, is called the Iron Gate. Between 1878 and 1898, the Hungarian government carried through, at a cost of seven million five hundred thousand dollars, extensive engineering works at the gorges of the Iron Gates for deepening the channel and cutting a canal.

ITS JOURNEY THROUGH THE BALKAN COUNTRIES

The lower course of the Danube, in Roumania and Bulgaria, is through a flat and marshy tract, fertile but badly cultivated and thinly peopled. It forms the northern boundary of Bulgaria as far as Silistria; and from here it turns northward, skirting the Dobruja, and flows between marshy banks to Galatz, receiving on the way the Jalomitza and the Sereth. From Galatz it flows east, and, after being joined by the Pruth from the north, it continues southeast to the Black Sea.

The delta is a vast wilderness (one thousand square miles) cut up by channels and lagoons; the farthest mouths are sixty miles apart. Two-thirds of the Danube’s volume passes through the Kilia, which, like the southern or St. George branch, forms a double channel near the outlet; and so ships enter by the middle or Sulina mouth, deepened to twenty feet and straightened in 1858-1903. The steel cantilever bridge across the river at Tchernavoda is one of the great railway bridges of the world.

ITS CHIEF TOWNS AND COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE

The principal towns on the Danube are Ratisbon, Vienna, Pressburg, Budapest, Belgrade, and Galatz. The width of the river varies considerably, and at some points the opposite shore is hardly discernible. It is first navigable at Ulm, and, thanks to various improvements, is now navigable continuously from that point to its mouth. Engineering work to this end, undertaken at Vienna, Budapest, and the Iron Gates has already been referred to. The International Danube Navigation Commission, appointed in 1856, controls the lower portion of the river, and has done much to improve navigation at the delta. Sea-going vessels of six hundred tons can now go nearly as far as the Iron Gates, while vessels of twenty-five hundred tons can go above Galatz. By means of canals the Danube is connected with the Rhine and the Elbe.

ITS PART IN HISTORY AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

This mighty river is exceedingly rich in historical and political associations. For a long period it formed the frontier of the Roman Empire, and along its course are still found many notable Roman remains. Traces of the great wall erected by the Emperor Trajan are to be seen on the south side of the Hungarian Danube. At Turn Severin, east of the Carpathians, a tower and several piers of Trajan’s Roman bridge, a splendid piece of ancient engineering, are still standing; while his more marvelous road in the rocky Kazan defile is marked by a Roman tablet still visible.

The struggles of races and peoples in the lands bordering the Danube have been among the fiercest and strongest in all history. Finns, Kelts, Germans, Slavs, Greeks, Italians and Turks have all vied with one another in the race of conquest and possession; and even today the Balkan countries are still in the seething cauldron of new struggles for domination or independence.

The Lake Region of Europe lies round the Baltic. _Ladoga_, in Russia, is the largest fresh-water lake in Europe, as wide across as the English Channel, between Portsmouth and Cherbourg. _Onega_, and Peipus (Russia) are also of great size, as well as the lakes of Finland and Sweden, and some of those of the Alps. Chief of these are Wetter and Mœlar in Sweden; the myriad lakes of Finland; the beautiful lakes of the folds of the Alps, Geneva, Neuchatel, and Constance on the north side; and Maggiore, Como, and Garda in the Italian valleys. They will be noticed further under the countries to which they belong.

THE NATIONS OF EUROPE--THE GREAT POWERS

Of the nations of Europe it may be said that in point of rank Great Britain, Germany, France, Austria, and Russia stand first as the “five great powers.” These include within their limits more than two-thirds of the entire population of Europe, and have for a long time controlled all continental questions. Second come Italy, Spain, and Sweden; in third rank are Turkey, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Portugal.

Another grouping on the basis of race stocks is frequently made beginning with the highest in culture, the _Germanic_; passing thence to the _Romanic_; concluding with the _Slavonic_, and the lands under the rule of the _Turks_, lowest in the scale, which are most closely connected with the Mongols of Asia. The Germanic, or Teutonic nations, include Great Britain; the German Empire; Austria-Hungary; Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark); Holland, or the Netherlands; Switzerland, and Belgium. The Romanic nations include France; Italy; Spain; Portugal; Greece, and Roumania. The Slavonic nations, Russia in Europe; Servia, and Montenegro. The Turkish or Mongol nations, Turkey in Europe; Bulgaria.

For various reasons the first grouping is adopted in the pages following.

GREAT BRITAIN

The British Empire, Great Britain and England are often erroneously used in the popular mind for one and the same nation. In strict accuracy the British Empire consists of (1) The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; (2) India, and the British Colonies, Protectorates, and Dependencies. Great Britain proper includes only England, Scotland and Wales. What is really meant is the geographical group of the British Isles, including England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the adjacent islands. For here is the source of power and authority that holds together and controls this greatest of modern empires.

=Geographical Features.=--The British Isles belong distinctly to the mainland of Europe. If we imagine the sea level between England and Holland to fall sixty feet--the height of an ordinary house--the broad _Dogger Bank_, midway between England and Denmark, would begin to show its sands, and if a fall of two hundred feet took place one might walk dry shod across to the continent, to Belgium, Holland, or Denmark. From its shallows and banks, its stormy cross seas and frequent fogs, the navigation of the _North Sea_ is dangerous; yet the traffic over it is enormous, for it is surrounded by countries, the inhabitants of which have been famous on the seas from the earliest times.

The great highways of commerce from it are _Dover Strait_, leading to the English Channel, in the south, and the stormy _Pentland Firth_, which separates Scotland from the Orkney Islands, in the north. The _English Channel_, though deeper than the North Sea, is also shallow; the enclosed _Irish Sea_, between England and Ireland, with _St. George’s Channel_ and the _North Channel_ leading out from it to the ocean, has been scoured deeper in its central lines; but there is a width of about fifty miles of shallow sea, or “soundings,” all round the islands, in the west, where they face the broad Atlantic.

=Chief Islands and Divisions.=--The main island of Great Britain, roughly triangular in shape, measures about six hundred miles in a straight line from its southwest corner, where the granite walls of _Land’s End_ and the dark serpentine cliffs of the _Lizard_ run out into the Atlantic, to the northern apex, the high red sandstone rocks of _Dunnet Head_, or its companion _Duncansby Head_, where John o’Groat’s House stood, on the beach of the Pentland Firth.

The base of the island, forming the north coast of the English Channel, measures only about half this distance, or three hundred and twenty miles; and the eastern side, from the chalk cliffs of the _South Foreland_, on the Strait of Dover, to the Pentland Firth, is about five hundred and forty miles long. No part of the interior of Great Britain is more distant than three or four days’ walk from the sea on one side or other. In the narrower parts of the north of Scotland, indeed, where the Moray Firth runs into the land, it is an easy day’s journey from the head of this inlet of the North Sea to that of one or other of the opposite sea lochs running in from the Atlantic.

The second island, _Ireland_, more rounded in general outline, measures three hundred miles from _Malin Head_, its northernmost point, to _Mizen Head_, its most southerly extremity, and two hundred miles from _Carnsore Point_, its southeastern corner nearest England, to _Erris Head_, its northwestern promontory on the Atlantic.

=Smaller Islands.=--The most extensive of the many island groups and islets are those which lie off the broken west coast of Scotland, the wild and rugged Outer and Inner Hebrides, of which _Lewis_, separated by the channel called the Minch, and _Skye_, _Mull_, _Islay_ and _Arran_, in the inner group, are the largest. The _Orkney_ group, separated from the north of Scotland by the turbulent Pentland Firth, consist of no fewer than fifty-nine rocky islets; and the _Shetlands_, forty miles farther north, comprise upwards of a hundred separate points. The high _Isle of Man_, in the middle of the Irish Sea; _Anglesey_, close to the Welsh coast; and now united to it by the famous railway tubes across the Menai Strait; and the _Isle of Wight_, “the garden of England,” in the English Channel, separated from the mainland by the busy Solent, are the others of importance. The Channel Islands, of which _Jersey_ and _Guernsey_ are the largest, belong politically to Britain, but are physically parts of France.

=Surface: Mountains and Lowlands.=--In the island of Great Britain the highest portions lie generally to north and west, the lowlands to south and east.

The heather-covered Highlands, which fill the north of Scotland, are divided by the great natural passage of _Glen More_, which runs in a straight line across the island from northeast to southwest into two chief groups, the northern and central.

The northern group consists of irregularly-distributed and often almost isolated masses, separated, it may be, by deep sea-fiords, and presenting every variety of contour, from that of the round mass of _Ben Wyvis_ to the steep, wall-like sides of _Suilvein_ or the sharp peak of _Ben Stack_. The Central Highlands or the _Grampians_, extending from the peninsula of Cantyre northeastward to the precipitous coast of Buchan on the North Sea, are far more massive and continuous.

_Ben Nevis_, a huge round mass ascending abruptly from the shores of Loch Eil at the mouth of the Great Glen, is the highest mountain of the British Isles.

The Southern Highlands of Scotland are more broken, and separated by river valleys. _Mount Merrick_, in the southwest, is their highest point; the _Lowther Hills_ form their central group; the _Pentlands_, _Moorfoot_, and _Lammermoor_ hills their more detached portions, on the northeast.

With the Cheviot Hills, the boundary range between Scotland and England, begins the long _Pennine chain_, which reaches due south into the heart of England. _Cheviot Hill_, in the north, _Crossfell_, and _Whernside_, and the _Peak of Derby_, in the south, mark the summits and direction of the chain. To the west of the Pennine chain rises the compact circular knob of slate mountains of Cumberland, of which _Scawfell_ is the summit of England proper. And corresponding to this mass, near the opposite coast, are the eastern moorlands and _wolds_ of Yorkshire.

Separated from the Pennine heights by the plain of Cheshire (west of England) rise the highlands of Wales, collectively called the _Cambrian Mountains_.

Across the Bristol Channel we come to the heights of the southwestern peninsula of England, with its three groups of _Exmoor_, _Dartmoor_, with its rugged granite tors, and the _Cornish Heights_. These are the more important mountain groups of Great Britain.

Over all the south and east of England the elevations are comparatively insignificant; broad, undulating, grassy uplands, called the _South Downs_ and the _Chiltern Hills_, rarely attaining more than eight hundred feet of elevation, follow the chalk formation across Southern England as far as Beachy Head on the Channel and the Foreland Cliffs on the Strait of Dover. The limestone _Cotswold Hills_ between these and the Welsh Highlands rise somewhat higher.

Almost all the lowlands of Great Britain lie to the east and south. Here we find the plain of the “_New Forest_” in Hampshire and the treeless _Salisbury Plain_, the broad open _Valley of the Thames_, the “_Eastern Plain_” of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, extending with rounded shores towards the North Sea; the low “_Fen District_” behind the shallow estuary of “_The Wash_,” from which many tracts have been reclaimed; the long “_Plain of York_” beyond; the valleys of the Tees and Tweed, the latter including the cultivated “_Merse_,” the march or border land of Berwickshire; the Scottish “_Lowlands_” between the Central and Southern Highlands; the “_Carse_” or alluvial plain of Gowrie, north of the Tay; “_Strathmore_,” the broad valley which extends between the Grampians and their southern outliers; the _plain of Cromarty_ and the level moors of eastern Caithness farthest north of all. The only extensive lowlands on the western side of the island are the “_Vale of Severn_,” the “_Plain of Cheshire_,” between the Pennine chain and the Welsh Highlands, the lowlands round the estuary of the Solway, those of Ayrshire, and the _Valley of the Clyde_.

Crossing over to Ireland, though we find the lines of elevation running generally in the same direction as those of Great Britain, or from northeast to southwest, as shown in the peninsulas of the southwest coast, the mountains appear rather in detached clusters than in definite ranges, with shapes rather rounded than abrupt, forming a fringe round the coasts. The plateau of Antrim, which forms the precipice of _Fair Head_, the nearest point to the Scottish coast, contains the remarkable basaltic scenery of the Giants’ Causeway.

=Giants’ Causeway.=--This extensive and extraordinary assemblage of basaltic columns is in the county of Antrim, between Bengore Head and Port Rush. The name is sometimes given to the whole range of basalt cliffs along the coast, some of which reach the height of four or five hundred feet; but it is more properly restricted to a small portion of it where a platform of closely-ranged basalt columns from fifteen to thirty-six feet in height runs down into the sea in three divisions, known as the Little, the Middle, and the Grand Causeway. The last is from twenty to thirty feet wide, and stretches some nine hundred feet into the sea.

The Giants’ Causeway derives its name from the legend that it was built by giants as a road which was to stretch across the sea to Scotland. There are similar formations on the west coast of Scotland, on the island of Staffa.

In the southwest are the _Mountains of Kerry_, containing _Cam Tual_, the summit of all Ireland. The only important groups that lie centrally in the island are the mountains of western Tipperary.

Within the circle of these heights, and branching out between them at many points to the sea-coast, lies the _Great Plain of Ireland_, averaging perhaps two hundred feet in elevation above the sea. The highest point between Dublin and Galway, east to west across its center, is only three hundred and twenty feet above the sea-level. Many parts of it, such as that which surrounds Lough Neagh in the north, are scarcely fifty feet in elevation.

=Rivers.=--England and Ireland are very bountifully watered; Scotland rather less so, as the higher mountains of Great Britain rise in the west of the island, so the water-parting line following the greatest general height lies nearer the west than the east. The longer and gentler slope of the island is to the North Sea; the shorter and steeper to the Atlantic side. Hence most of the larger rivers belong to the North Sea drainage.

THE THAMES (_Temz_), the most important river of Great Britain, flows southeast by east across the southern portion of the country. It rises in the Cotswold Hills and follows a course of some one hundred and ninety miles to Gravesend, the head of the estuary, where it has a width of half a mile, gradually increasing then to ten miles at the Nore lightship about thirty miles farther. By the addition of its tributaries the Colne, Leach, and Churn, it becomes navigable for barge traffic at Lechlade, where the canal to the Severn leaves. Above Oxford the stream is frequently called the Isis. At Oxford the navigability improves, and river steamers ply between Oxford and points below it as far as London. Until the Tower Bridge, in London, was built, London Bridge was the lowest in the course, and ocean-going vessels still reach the latter.

Gravesend, twenty miles lower, grew up at the spot where vessels waited the turn of the tide; a little farther the Medway, by virtue of its estuary the most important tributary, enters; just inside this is Chatham, an important naval depot. Opposite Gravesend and on the north bank is Tilbury, the terminus of modern liners. The waters from the Tilbury docks to the Nore lightship are of great strategic importance, hence there is here a station for destroyers, torpedo-boats, and gun-boats. Sheerness and Shoreham as land defenses add to this.

From London Bridge downward the Thames is lined with docks and wharves, the former being now under the Port of London authority. At Woolwich, on the south bank, eight miles below London Bridge, is the arsenal, and a little farther up the river Greenwich Observatory.