tains, to westward of these,--shapes itself like a bill-hook
(or elliptically, as was said): handle and hook together may be some
200 miles in length. The precipitous side of this is, in general, turned
outwards, towards Bohmen, Mahren, Ungarn (Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary,
in our dialects); and Schlesien lies inside, irregularly sloping down,
towards the Baltic and towards the utmost East, From the Bohemian side
of these Mountains there rise two Rivers: Elbe, tending for the West;
Morawa for the South;--Morawa, crossing Moravia, gets into the Donau,
and thence into the Black-Sea; while Elbe, after intricate adventures
among the mountains, and then prosperously across the plains, is out,
with its many ships, into the Atlantic. Two rivers, we say, from the
Bohemian or steep side: and again, from the Silesian side, there rise
other two, the Oder and the Weichsel (VISTULA); which start pretty near
one another in the Southeast, and, after wide windings, get both into
the Baltic, at a good distance apart.

For the first thirty, or in parts, fifty miles from the Mountains,
Silesia slopes somewhat rapidly; and is still to be called a
Hill-country, rugged extensive elevations diversifying it: but after
that, the slope is gentle, and at length insensible, or noticeable
only by the way the waters run. From the central part of it, Schlesien
pictures itself to you as a plain; growing ever flatter, ever sandier,
as it abuts on the monotonous endless sand-flats of Poland, and the
Brandenburg territories; nothing but Boundary Stones with their brass
inscriptions marking where the transition is; and only some Fortified
Town, not far off, keeping the door of the Country secure in that
quarter.

On the other hand, the Mountain part of Schlesien is very picturesque;
not of Alpine height anywhere (the Schnee-Koppe itself is under 5,000
feet), so that verdure and forest wood fail almost nowhere among the
Mountains; and multiplex industry, besung by rushing torrents and the
swift young rivers, nestles itself high up; and from wheat
husbandry, madder and maize husbandry, to damask-weaving, metallurgy,
charcoal-burning, tar-distillery, Schlesien has many trades, and has
long been expert and busy at them to a high degree. A very
pretty Ellipsis, or irregular Oval, on the summit of the European
Continent;--"like the palm of a left hand well stretched out, with the
Riesengebirge for thumb!" said a certain Herr to me, stretching out his
arm in that