Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/156

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136 AUSTRIA which belonged until 1866 to the German con- federation, 30,313 sq. m., pop. 5,444,689 ; 13, the duchy of Bukowina, 4,036 sq. m., pop. 513,404; 14, the kingdom of Dalmatia, 4,940 sq. m., pop. 456,961. Total area of the 14 provinces represented in the Reichsrath, 115,- 925 sq. m. ; total population, 20,394,980. This includes 177,449 soldiers, deducting whom the civil population amounts to 20,217,531. The aggregate population of these 14 provinces in 1830 was 15,588,142; in 1850, 17,534,950; in 1857, 18,224,500. At the close of the year 1871 the civil population was officially calcu- lated at 20,555,370. Of the remaining seven provinces, Lombardy and Venetia have been ceded to Italy in consequence of the wars of 1859 and 1866; and the kingdom of Hungary, the kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia, the way- wodeship of Servia, the grand duchy of Tran- sylvania, and the Military Frontier now belong to the lands of the Hungarian crown (the way- wodeship of Servia having however ceased to be a separate crown land and been incorporated with Hungary proper). About five sevenths of the Austrian territory are mountainous. There are three principal chains of mountains, each of them sending off many branches, viz. : 1. The Alps (Rhffitian, Noric, Oarnic, Julian, and Dinaric), covering almost the entire south- ern belt of the German provinces, as well as Illyria and Dalmatia (see ALPS) ; their highest peaks are the Ortler (12,852 ft.) and the Gross- Glockner (12,776 ft.). 2. The Carpathians, about 800 m. long, beginning at the confluence of the Danube and the March, near Presbnrg, sweeping in an arc to the confluence of the Danube and Cserna, on the confines of Walla- chia and Servia. (See CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS, and HUNGARY.) The bold and rugged granite cliffs of the Carpathians, in N. Hungary and E. Transylvania, rise to a height of more than 8,000 ft. above the level of the sea. 3. The Sudetic mountains, with the Bohemian forest and the Ore mountains (Erzgebirge, between Bohemia and Saxony), forming together an almost uninterrupted chain of granite and gneiss formation. The highest section of this chain, the Giant mountains or Riesengebirge, between Bohemia and Prussian Silesia, rises in the Schneekoppe, or Snow peak, to an elevation of upward of 5,000 ft. above the level of the sea. Besides these three great chains there are several parallel ranges of considerable height. Thus on both sides of the Alps there extend limestone ranges, the northern ones towering up to the height of 9,840 ft. (the Dachstein, or Roof peak, on the boundary line of Salzburg and Styria), while the southern ones, reaching to the height of 10,903 ft., cover nearly the whole territory of Illyria and Dalmatia. Again, the Carpathians are surrounded by sandstone moun- tains, which almost fill up the territory of Transylvania. Of large plains there are only two : the great Hungarian basin, covering about 40,000 sq. m., and the Galician basin, which is interrupted by several ranges of hills and covers about 20,000 sq. m. The seacoast of Austria extends from the head of the gulf of Venice to the S. point of Dalmatia, on the E. side of the Adriatic, 1,036 m. Austria belongs to four of the great river systems of Europe, those of the Black sea, the Baltic, the German ocean, and the Mediterranean. Among the numerous streams the Danube is by far the most important ; it is, in fact, the main artery of the Austrian empire, and may at no very dis- tant period become for a large portion of south- ern Europe what the Mississippi is for the United States. The Danube, being the largest Euro- pean river after the Volga, enters Austria from Bavaria as a stream navigable at all seasons, but its channel formerly offered serious im- pediments to navigation, all of which have been removed or are in process of removal. (See DANITBE.) Steamboats were first intro- duced on the Danube in 1830. Since 1835 the Austrian steam navigation company has in- creased their number from year to year, until in 1869 it maintained 146 steamboats and pro- pellers, besides 550 barges, scows, &c. The en- tire length of the Danube in Austria is nearly 900 m., and its average width 600 ft. Most of its tributaries are navigable for small craft, and steam has been introduced on several. The river Theiss, in Hungary, the most consider- able of them all, said also to have a greater abundance of fish than any other European river, is navigated by steamboats from Tokay down to the Danube ; it has a length of up- ward of 600 m. The Save, which enters the Danube near Belgrade, is navigable for a large part of its course. Steamboats also ply on the Inn, on the Bavarian frontier, and since 1857 even on the Salzach, a smaller stream, emptying into the Inn. The other important tributaries of the Danube, in their geographi- cal order, are the Traun, the Enns, the March or Morava, the Raab, the Waag, the Neutra, the Gran, the Eypel, and the Drave or Drau, all of which are navigable. The Moldau, trib- utary to the Elbe, in Bohemia, is also navi- gated by steamboats. The Vistula, Dniester, and Pruth rise within the Austrian empire in Galicia, the Elbe in Bohemia, and the Adige in Tyrol. The lakes of Austria are nu- merous, though not very large. The Flatten or Balaton lake in S. W. Hungary has a surface of about 400 sq. m. The only salt lake in Austria is the Neusiedler lake in W. Hungary, nearly 20 m. long, and from 5 to 7 m. wide. The Czirknitzer lake, in Carniola, is remarkable as containing a number of subterranean cavi- ties, through which its waters from time to time disappear and again flow in. The climate of Austria is temperate and very wholesome. From the southern boundary tip to lat. 46, the average temperature is 54J F. ; from lat. 46 to lat. 49", it is 50 to 52 ; beyond lat. 49 it is 48. The winter is very severe in the moun- tainous districts, but sudden changes of temper- ature are not frequent. Nature has endowed Austria with a greater variety of p'roductions