Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/638

 614 T Y S T Y Austria, on the E. by Hungary, on the S. by Croatia and Carniola, and on the W. by Carinthia and Salzburg. Its area is 8630 square miles. Almost the entire district is mountainous, being occupied by various chains and rami- fications of the eastern Alps ; and, though Northern (or Upper) and Southern (or Lower) Styria are distinguished, the latter is low only in a relative sense. The North Limestone Alps touch Styria to the north of the Enns, beginning with the huge Dachstein (9830 feet), which rises on the north-west border of the duchy. To the south of the Enns the central chain of the Alps traverses Styria from south-west to north-east in two huge ranges, separated by the valleys of the Mur and the Miirz, and con- veniently grouped under the name of Styrian Alps. The more northerly of these two branches, forming a prolonga- tion of the Tauern ridge, is the loftier, and culminates in the Hochgolling (9392 feet), the highest summit in Styria. The lower branch to the south is broken by the valley of the Mur, which turns abruptly to the right at its con- fluence with the Miirz, and still farther to the north-east is crossed by the Semmering Pass. To the south of the Drave the duchy is traversed by the Karawanken Mountains (highest peak, the Stou, 7346 feet), forming a continuation of the Carnic Alps. The mountains decrease in height from west to east, and the south-east part of Styria may be described as hilly rather than mountainous. There is nowhere level ground enough to form a plain in the proper acceptation of the term, but some of the valleys contain a good deal of fertile land. The rivers of Styria all drain into the Danube ; the Save and the Traun are the most important of those not already mentioned. There are numerous small mountain lakes. The climate, of course, varies with the configuration of the surface, and there is a mean annual difference of about 7 Fahr. between the temperature of the north-west and the south-east. In spite of the irregular nature of the surface, but little of the soil can be called unproductive. About 21 - 40 per cent, is under tillage, 1275 in meadow, and 1675 in pasture, while nearly a half of the total area is covered with fine forests. The chief crops are oats, maize, rye, wheat, buckwheat, potatoes, and flax. Wine is produced in the valleys of Lower Styria, where large quantities of chestnuts are also grown. In the mountains dairy-farming is successfully carried on in the Alpine fashion, and good horses are reared in the valley of the Enns. Sheep are comparatively few, but there are large numbers of goats and swine, while poultry-rearing and bee-keeping are very general in the Slavonic districts to the south. Some fairly successful attempts have also been made to breed silkworms. Trout and other fish are abundant in the rivers and mountain lakes and chamois are hunted among the higher Alps. The great wealth of Styria, however, lies underground. Its ex- tensive and important iron mines yield nearly one-third of the iron ore raised in the Austrian empire, and its other mineral resources include brown coal, pit-coal, copper, zinc, lead, graphite, a little gold and silver, nickel, alum, cobalt, salt, dyer's earth, potter's clay, marble, and good mill and building stones. The best known of its numerous mineral springs are the thermal springs of Tu'ffer, the alkaline springs of Rohitsch, and the brine springs of Aussee. The chief industry of Styria is determined by its mineral rich- ness, and iron-foundries, machine-shops, and manufactures of various kinds of iron and steel goods are very numerous. A special branch is the making of scythes and sickles, which are sent out of the country in large quantities. Among its other industrial products are glass, paper, cement, oil and perfumery, shoes, cotton goods, chemicals, and gunpowder. Linen-weaving is prosecuted as a household industry. An active trade is carried on in the above-named manufactures, and in brown coal, cattle, wine, and fruit. In addition to three navigable rivers (Drave, Save, Mur), the traffic of the duchy is facilitated by 600 miles of railway. The population of Styria in 1880 was 1,213,597, equivalent to 140 per square mile, a proportion which, while not high in itself, is considerably above the rate in the other mountainous regions of the empire. Nearly the whole of these profess the Roman Catholic faith, the Protestants numbering only 8000 and the Jews about 1000. Two-thirds of the inhabitants are Germans ; the remainder, chiefly found in the south parts of the duchy, in the valleys of the Drave and Save, are Slavs (Slovenes). About 65 per cent, are supported by agricultural pursuits, including forestry. The educa- tion of the crownland centres in the university of Gratz, which is attended by about 1200 students. The capital and seat of the ad- ministration is Gratz (100,000 inhabitants), which is also the head- quarters of the third corps of the Austrian army ; the only other town of any size is Marburg (17,600). The provincial estates con- sist of 63 members, including the two Roman Catholic bishops, the rector of the university, 12 representatives of the large landowners, 23 of the peasants, 19 of the towns, and 6 of the chambers of com- merce. Styria sends 23 members to the imperial parliament. In the Roman period Styria, which even thus early was famed for its iron and steel, was inhabited by the Celtic Taurisci, and divided geographically between Noricum and Pannonia. Subse- quently it was successively occupied or traversed by Visigoths, Huns, Ostrogoths, Langobardi, Franks, and Avars. Towards the end of the 6th century the last-named began to give way to the Slavs (Wends), who ultimately made themselves masters of the entire district. Styria was included in the conquests of Charlemagne, and was henceforth comprised in the German marks erected against the Avar and the Slav. At first the identity of Styria is lost in the great duchy of Carinthia, corresponding more or less closely to the Upper Carinthian mark. This duchy, however, afterwards fell to pieces, and a distinct mark of Styria was recognized, taking its name from the margrave Ottocar of Steier (1056). A century or so later it was created a duchy. In 1192 the duchy of Styria came by inheritance to the house of Austria, and from that time it shared the fortunes of Upper and Lower Austria, passing like them to the Hapsburgs in 1282. The Protestant Reformation met an early and general welcome in Styria, but the dukes took the most stringent measures to stamp it out, offering their subjects recanta- tion or expatriation as the only alternatives. At least 30,000 Protestants preferred exile, and it was not till about 100 years ago that religious liberty was recognized. The modern history of Styria has been similar to that of the other Austrian crownlands, and calls for no special remark. STYX, a river which the Greeks fabled to flow in the world of the dead. Homer speaks of it as a river of Hades by which the gods swore their most solemn oaths, and he couples it with the Cocytus and the Pyriphlege- thon, the river of wailing and the river of burning fire. Hesiod says that Styx was a daughter of Ocean, and that, when Zeus summoned the gods to Olympus to help him to fight the Titans, Styx was the first to come and her children with her ; hence as a reward Zeus ordained that the most solemn oath of the gods should be by her and that her children (Emulation, Victory, Power, and Force) should always live with him. In another passage he says that Styx (whom, somewhat contradictorily, he describes as abhorred by the immortal gods) dwells far off from the gods in a beautiful house overarched with rocks and supported by tall silver pillars, which may be meant as a description of a stalactitic cave. Again Hesiod tells us that if any god, after pouring a libation of the water of Styx, forswore him- self, he had to lie in a trance for a year without speaking or breathing, and that for nine years afterwards he was ex- cluded from the society of the gods. In historical times the Styx was identified with a lofty waterfall near Nonacris in Arcadia. Pausanias describes the cliff over which the water falls as the highest he had ever seen, and indeed the fall is the highest in Greece. The scenery is wild and deso- late. The water descends in two slender cascades, which, after winding among the rocks, unite and fall into the river Akrata (the ancient Crathis). The ancients regarded the water as poisonous, and thought that it possessed the power of breaking or dissolving vessels of every material, with the exception of the hoof of a horse or ass, or (according to others) of horn. The Arcadians used to swear by it on im- portant occasions. The people in the neighbourhood still hold that the water is unwholesome, and that no vessel will hold it. They call it the Black Water or the Terrible Water. Considering the prominence given by the ancients to an oath by the water of Styx, and comparing the effect supposed to follow from breaking that oath with the destructive power supposed to be possessed by the water, we are tempted to conjecture that drinking the water was originally a necessary part of the oath, that in fact in the stories of the Styx we have traditions of an ancient poison ordeal such as is commonly employed amongst barbarous peoples as a means of eliciting the truth (see ORDEAL). See Leakc, Travels in the Morea, iii. p. 15C sg.; M. G. Clark, Peloponnesus, p. 302 sq. Curtius, feloponnesos, i. p. 195 sq.; Wordsworth, Greece, p. 384.