the white bear of the islands on the northen coast, to the camel of the southern provinces, Russia produces all the varieties of the animal world known in Europe.

This country abounds with forests of vast extent: the road from Petersburg to Moscow leads for 150 miles through the forest of Volkonski, composed of oak, beech, mountainash, pine, and fir. The trees found in greatest abundance are the fir and the pine, furnishing at Memel and other ports unexhausted supplies of timber, pitch, &c. to many parts of Europe. Hemp and flax are also exported in great quantities, and of the best quality.

Contiguous to the northern shores of Bussia, lies the extensive cluster of barren, uninhabited islands called in general Nova Zembla, or more properly Novaya Zemlia, that is, the New Land, stretching in the form of a crescent between Jat. 70° and 77°, and resorted to in the summer for the sake of the seals, foxes, and white bears found on its desert shores.

Some authors have considered the remote islands of Spitzbergen, lying between lat. 76° and so° as belonging in some respects to the Russians, who have attempted to form a settlement on them, for the convenience of the whale fishery, which in that part of the northern ocean is the most abundant.

North-east from these isles lies a small group called the Seven Sisters, the most northerly land hitherto discovered.

The prevailing religion of Russia is the Christian system of the Greek Church, differing in many essential points from that of Rome, and holding in a considerable degree a middle course between it and protestantism. The government of the Russian empire is completely despotic, the will of the sovereign being the only legal authority.

V.

HOLLAND.

THE Country lying along the shore of the German ocean, opposite to England, and adjoining to France on the north, being low and flat, and in many parts covered with marshes and lakes, was long ago distinguished by the name of the Low Countries, or the Netherlands. Whilst this tract belonged to the house of Austria and the crown of Spain, it was divided into seventeen provinces; but the seven most northerly provinces, towards the end of the 16th century, throwing off their allegiance to Philip II. of Spain, formed an independent republican state, under the title of the Seven United Provinces, while the remaining ten continued under the house of Austria, until, in the course of the revolutionary war with France, they were conquered by that power, and finally at the peace incorporated with it.

The Seven United Provinces are generally known by the name of Holland, which is the most considerable of the number; the other six being, Friesland, Groningen, Overyssel, Utrecht, Gelderland, and Zealand. The extent of the whole territory is about 150 English miles from north to south, by 100 from west to east, the number of square miles being computed at 10,000, occupied by about 2,758,000 inhabitants, or nearly 256 for each square mile, a proportion greater than that of any other country in Europe.

Great part of the territory of Holland being taken up with rivers, canals, marshes, lakes, and inlets of the sea, the climate is extremely moist, and although no part of the country be situated so far to the northward as the mouth of the Humber in England, yet the winter's cold is so intense, that not only the rivers, canals, &c. are locked

up

up with ice, but even the great bay of the sea called the Zuyder Zee, is itself frequently frozen over.

In such a country no hills can be expected; but in the eastern parts a few gentle swellings of the surface serve to vary the prospect.

One of the principal rivers of Europe, the Rhine, terminates its course in Holland, but receiving in the heart of the country the Maas, or Meuse, which runs northernly from France, this much inferior stream usurps the name, and their common discharge into the sea below Rotterdam is called the Mouth of the Meuse. The Leck and the Wahal are branches of the Rhine uniting with the Meuse. The other rivers are of little importance in a geographical point of view, but with the multitude of canals by which Holland is intersected, are of incalculable value to the manufactures and commerce of the country.

The lakes of Holland are either stagnating inundations of the rivers, or so connected with the sea as rather to resemble inlets from it than internal pieces of water.

From the nature of the country no minerals, even coal, can be looked for: the peat for fuel is the only substance drawn by industry from the bosom of the earth: but in sinking wells and digging deep in the marshes, sea-sand has been met with, and the trunks of trees, pointing eastward; proofs of the great changes Holland in the course of ages has undergone.

This country produces very little grain, but in recompense the pastures are excellent, supporting cows enough for the use of a very crowded population, and affording butter and cheese sufficient to supply an extensive exportation.

The animals of Holland are similar to those of England: but the stork, a common and protected bird in Holland, is a stranger to England. The coasts furnish abundance chiefly of flat fish, such as turbot, plaice, &c: but the herrings, for curing which the Hollanders (or Dutch, as we call them)

were

were once so renowned, were drawn from the northern coasts of Britain.

The very dense population has been already noticed; and the number of large towns full of people is equally extraordinary. The chief town of the whole country, and of the province of Holland in particular, is Amsterdam, seated at the bottom of the great inlet called the Zuyder Zee, which forms its port, formerly one of the most frequented in the world. The inhabitants have been reckoned 212,000. The streets of this and of most of the other towns of Holland are straight, well built, and clean, having in general a canal in the middle, and a quay on each side, where the ves sels may lie before the merchants' doors. Leyden, a celebrated university, possesses about 50,000 people. Rotterdam, another much frequented port, contains about 48,000. Harlem, where the art of printing, if it was not invented, was at least very early practised, possesses 40,000 people. The Hague, although only considered as an open village, was the seat of government, and contains 36,000 inhabitants. Middelburg, the capital of the island of Zealand, a noted port, with 30,000 people. Utrecht, another celebrated university, has about 20,000.

The prevailing religious profession of Holland is the calvinistic form of protestantism, resembling the Church of Scotland: persons of other professions, particularly Roman catholics, are very numerous, and enjoy perfect liberty of conscience.

The seven united provinces were lately converted into a kingdom for Louis the brother of the emperor of France, with a council of state, consisting of thirteen members, and a legislative body, composed of thirty-eight members, elected by the different provinces or departments in proportion to their population.

VOL, II,

VI.

GERMAN STATES.

The term Germany is applied by the English to a multitude of states of various degrees of extent, population, and importance, occupying the heart of Europe, extending about 600 English miles from the Baltic to the southern borders of Austria, and about 500 miles from the Rhine to the frontiers of Poland. This country we call Germany, from the Germania of the ancient Romans; but in the language of the country it is called Deutschland, or the country of the Teutones; and the inhabitants Deutsch, (pronounced like the English words dyche or tyche,) an appellation by us corrupted and improperly confined to the natives of Holland and the other United Provinces, whom we commonly call Dutch.

Germany being situated between the parallels of 46° and 54° of n. lat. the climate is in general temperate, although along the shores of the Baltic the cold is often severe; but in the middle and southern provinces the warmth is sufficient for maturing grapes and producing wines of good quality. The northern and western parts of the country are in general one vast sandy plain, little elevated above the sea; but in the eastern and southern parts are many tracts of hills and mountains, uniting by gradual succession to the lofty ranges of the Alps. The most northerly mountains of any note in Germany are, the Hartz, 40 miles south-east from Hanover, rising to the height of above 3000 feet. The Erzgeberg, a range separating Saxony from Bohemia, are more remarkable for their valuable mineral productions than for their elevation. In the south-west part of the country are a number of broad ranges of considerable height, called the Schwartzwald, that is to say, the Black Forest, a namie probably