GERMANY. 625 North Sea, it links Berlin, the capital and business centre, with Hamburg, the chief port, by the canals of the Havel and Spree river systems. The Weser is also of great importance in its The Oder and the Vistula are the lower course. chief Baltic rivers. Both rise in Austria, have only a short course in the highlands, and flow The Oder is the mainly through the lowland. great waterway of the rich mining and manufacturing district of Silesia, and of the wide farming area around Frankfort-on-the-Oder; with the canal leading to the Spree it is a highway for Berlin's commerce from Southeast Prussia to the port of Stettin. The lower part of the Vistula is German, but it carries a great deal of Russian timber, grain, and fibres to Danzig for export. Among other important streams are the Ems, flowing into the North Sea, the Main and the Moselle, affluents of the Rhine, the Pregel and Memel, flowing into the Baltic, and the Saale, an The rivers of Germany affluent of the Elbe. are naturally navigable for nearly 6000 miles; are canalized for nearly 1400 miles; and there are nearly 1500 miles of canals. Among the most important of the canals are the Ludwigskanal in Bavaria, uniting the Danube with the Main, and thus supplying a continuous waterway from the North to the Black Sea; the system connecting the Memel with the Pregel; that joining the Oder with the Elbe; the Plauen Canal, connecting the Elbe with the Havel; the Eider Canal, connecting the Eider with Kiel; the Rhine-Rhône, and the RhineMarne, in Alsace-Lorraine; the great Baltic Sea or Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, begun in 1887 and opened for traffic in 1895, saving two days' time by steamer between Hamburg and all the Baltic ports of Germany; and several canals in process of construction. The lakes of Germany are chiefly in two groups, of which the smaller is in the southern These lakes section, in the Alpine Foreland. are found only in regions once covered by glacier ice, and their existence is closely connected with the ice sheet that descended from the Alps during the Great Ice Age. The larger group extends over the northern lowland, with the greatest number of lakes east of the Elbe, on the Baltic lake plain, where there are hundreds of them of glacial origin. CLIMATE. The temperature differences between the north and the south are not so great as might be expected, because the elevation of the south is much higher than that of the north, and counteracts the effect of the difference in latitude. The differences are greater between The Rhine lands are the west and the east. the warmest and the Baltic Sea lands the coldest The business of the Baltic parts of Germany. ports is much impeded by ice in winter, while the North Sea ports are less affected by this A impediment, though not quite free from it. line drawn from Bremen to Munich divides GerOn many into two sections climatologically. the west the climate is much like that of France, and mild winters and not excessively hot summers are the rule; but on the east the temperature assumes rapidly a more continental character, tempered by the close proximity to the sea at the north, but rigorous in the interior. The rainfall, owing to the nearness of the sea, is usually sufficient for all forms of agriculture. The Harz Mountains, far enough north to catch the wet winds from the North Sea, have the Germany has in the north the Baltic flora and The best farming lands are in the warm, wellsheltered Rhine Valley, with its rich alluvial soil, where the vine is brought to an unusual degree of perfection. Many of the hill slopes throughout the highland are terraced and cultivated, but the mountains are forest-clad, and cultivation is chiefly confined to the plains and valleys. The soils differ in natural fertility, but are better than those of the low plain of the north, and all deficiencies in plain food are artificially supplied. The soil of most of the low plain is poor and sandy, particularly in the centre and east, and is kept in a state of high productivity only by scientific tillage and fertilization. FAUNA. Germany, by its northerly situation, exposed to cold airs of the north and cut off from the south by lofty mountains, has a decidedly northern fauna, and the fastnesses of the Harz and the mountains of Bavaria, Saxony, and Silesia have preserved several wild forms extinct or nearly so elsewhere in Europe. Thus there may still be found there bears, wolves (occasionally, along the Russian border), foxes, martens, weasels, badgers, otters, and rarely a wildcat. Fallow deer are known only in a few parks, but the roe and wild boar are obtainable in many forests, and the elk still exists along the All these, together with the Polish border. Alpine chamois, are 'preserved.' The birds are those of Europe, with the absence of several semitropical species common south of the Alps. Most of them are migratory, and traverse the Empire along two great highways.' One leads to and from Africa along the Rhine-Rhône Valley, and thence east in spring and west in winter along the Baltic shore to and from Northern Russia; the other follows the Danube Valley to and from Asia Minor and India. Of the resident birds the of the Swiss, Swabian, and Franconian Juras, which extend on the north side of the Rhône, the Aar, and the Danube from the Rhône to the Main. Parallel to this chain and south of the Aar and the Danube is the extended Tertiary area of the Alpine Foreland and the Chalk Alps, which is separated from the central Alpine region of old crystalline rocks by a narrow border of Jurassic formation. Germany has been glaciercovered as far south as latitude 51% in the western and 50% in the eastern part. most remarkable is the great capercailzie of the eastern districts. Reptiles are not as well represented in Germany as in warmer and more diversified France and Italy; and the adder is nowhere common. One of its frogs, called the 'firebellied,' is well known. Germany shares in the fish and fisheries of the North Sea, and possesses the larger part of the south shore of the Baltic. This inland sea seems some thousands of years ago to have admitted the ocean more freely, and then, as is shown by prehistoric shell-heaps, marine fishes, oysters, and edible mollusks gener-X MINING. The mining interests are of great imally abounded in its waters. Now there are no sea fisheries of consequence in any part of the Baltic, which seems to be growing steadily shallower and fresher, with consequent alteration of its biological character. The rivers of Germany abound in fishes of large variety, among which the salmon and trout that ascend the larger streams from the Baltic are prominent. The carp family is largely represented; and the catfishes (Silurida) of Germany are especially big, numerous, and edible. Insects are numerous, and bees are raised in some provinces to an extent hardly equaled elsewhere in Europe. GEOLOGY. The surface geological formations of the northern plain are mainly Quaternary sands and clays of alluvial glacial deposit, with an occasional patch of firm Tertiary formation emerging from it. The great central highland is represented by all the formations, but is chiefly Mesozoic. On the southern border of the Quaternary plain where the highlands begin, there are in the region of the Weser highland narrow transition bands of the Cretaceous and Jura formations, which are replaced a little farther south by the great central area of Triassic rocks. On the west of the Weser highland the Quaternary formation of the north is replaced on the south by a broader Cretaceous zone, somewhat interrupted by the Quaternary, and south of the Lippe in the region of the Ruhr is a narrow belt of Dyassic and coal formation which in the Sauerland highlands is replaced by the extensive Devonian and Silurian areas of the middle Rhine, and which extends far to the westward into France. These formations are interrupted by patches of eruptive rocks and Tertiary formations, and are bordered on the south directly on the Rhine by Tertiary formations, which, however, are soon replaced by the Quaternary, which characterizes the upper middle Rhine Valley, and which interrupts the great Triassic area of Central and Southern Germany. West of the Rhine the Quaternary formations of the northern plain extend much farther south than east of the Rhine, and with progress southward are replaced, after slight interruptions, by Tertiary and Triassic for mations, by the extensive Devonian and Silurian areas, which are separated from the extensive Triassic area of the south by the Dyassic and coal formations in the Oldenburg region. In the region of the Black Forest on the east and of the Vosges Mountains on the west of the Rhine Valley are extensive areas of old crystalline rocks. In the Harz Mountains the central area of Devonian and Silurian formations is surrounded by a narrow strip of Dyassic formation which on the south is replaced by the Triassic, until interrupted by the Thuringian Forest by recurring Dyassic, Devonian, and Silurian formations. The great central Triassic area is bordered on the south by the long Jurassic chain consisting portance, giving employment to over 570,000 persons annually. Germany is the third largest coal and iron producing country in the world, standing next to the United States and Great Britain. The export coal trade is steadily increasing. The total yield of the mines, exclusive of lignite, for 1900, was 109,000,000 tons, valued at $230,000,000. Of this amount, 93 per cent. was produced in the Prussian provinces of Westphalia, Silesia, and the Rhine. About 5 per cent. came from Saxony and the remainder from Bavaria and Alsace-Lorraine. More than 16,000,000 tons, or about 15 per cent., were produced in Government mines. The steadily growing demand for fuel has greatly increased the mining of brown coal (lignite), in spite of its inferior quality, especially since the device of making it up into briquettes has enhanced its heating qualities and rendered it more convenient for storing and transportation than before. Of the total output of 40.000.000 tons of brown coal in 1900, 34,000,000 tons were produced in the Prussian provinces of Brandenburg, Saxony, and Hesse-Nassau. The following table shows the growth of the coal industry during the last three decades of the nineteenth century: The total production in the year 1900 was nearly 150,000,000 tons, as compared with 242,000,000 for the United States. The annual output of iron has been steadily growing (as the figures below will show), owing to the constantly increasing demand for raw material from the iron and steel works of Germany. The output of iron ore in 1900 was 12,793,065 tons, 4,268,069, or about one-third, of which was obtained in Prus-, sia, and 7,742,315, or over 60 per cent., in AlsaceLorraine. The output of iron ore in 1891 was 7,555,461 tons; in 1895, 8,436,523. Germany is rich in other ores, such as copper, zinc, lead, bismuth, nickel, cobalt, etc., the bulk of which is produced in Prussia. The quantity of gold is very small, but the silver-mines are perhaps the richest in Europe, yielding 6,243,326 troy ounces in 1900. There are large deposits of rock and other salt and an abundance of potash salts, which have contributed greatly to the development of the chemical industry in Germany. Small quantities of petroleum are found. For a more detailed description, see Geology and Mining under special divisions. FISHERIES. The German fisheries are not of very great importance so far as the number of |