urg: the place otherwise is
sandy by nature, sand and swamp the constituents of it; and stands on
a sluggish river the color of oil. Wendish fishermen had founded some
first nucleus of it long before; and called their fishing-hamlet COLN,
which is said to be the general Wendish title for places FOUNDED ON
PILES, a needful method where your basis is swamp. At all events, "Coln"
still designates the oldest quarter in Berlin; and "Coln on the Spree"
(Cologne, or Coln on the Rhine, being very different) continued, almost
to modern times, to be the Official name of the Capital.

How the Dutch and Wends agreed together, within their rampart, inclusive
of both, is not said. The river lay between; they had two languages;
peace was necessary: it is probable they were long rather on a taciturn
footing! But in the oily river you do catch various fish; Coln, amid its
quagmires and straggling sluggish waters, can be rendered very strong.
Some husbandry, wet or dry, is possible to diligent Dutchmen. There is
room for trade also; Spree Havel Elbe is a direct water-road to Hamburg
and the Ocean; by the Oder, which is not very far, you communicate with
the Baltic on this hand, and with Poland and the uttermost parts of
Silesia on that. Enough, Berlin grows; becomes, in about 300 years,
for one reason and another, Capital City of the country, of these many
countries. The Markgraves or Electors, after quitting Brandenburg, did
not come immediately to Berlin; their next Residence was Tangermunde
(MOUTH of the TANGER, where little Tanger issues into Elbe); a much
grassier place than Berlin, and which stands on a Hill, clay-and-sand
Hill, likewise advantageous for strength. That Berlin should have
grown, after it once became Capital, is not a mystery. It has quadrupled
itself, and more, within the last hundred years, and I think doubled
itself within the last thirty.

MARKGRAF OTTO IV., OR OTTO WITH THE ARROW

One Ascanier Markgraf, and one only, Otto IV. by title, was a Poet
withal; had an actual habit of doing verse. There are certain so-called
Poems of his, still extant, read by Dryasdust, with such enthusiasm as
he can get up, in the old _Collection of Minne-singers,_ made by MANESSE
the Zurich Burgermeister, while the matter was much fresher than it
now is. [Rudiger von Manesse, who fought the Austrians, too, made his
_Sammlung_ (Collection) in the latter half of the fourteenth century; it
was printed, after many narrow risks of