Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/57

 PRUSSIA PROVINCES. Area, iq. miles. DISTRICTS. Prussia 24,114 Konigsberg, Gumbinnen, Brandenburg. . 15,403 Dantzic, Marienwerder. (Berlin), Potsdam, Frank- Pomerania 11 680 fort-on-the-Oder. Stettin, Koslin, Stralsund. Posen 11.179 Posen, Bromberg. Silesia 15.556 Breslau, Liegnitz, Oppeln. Saxony 9,746 Magdeburg, Merseburg, Er- Pehleswig-Holstein. . Hanover 6,766 14,856 furt. Schleswig. Hanover, Hildesheim, Lune- "Westphalia 7,799 burg, Stade, Osnabruck, Aurich. Munster, Minden, Arnsberg. Hesse-Nassau 6,138 Cassel, Wiesbaden. The Rhine Province. Hohenzollern 10,416 440 Coblentz, Dusseldorf, Co- logne, Treves, Aix-la-Cha- pelle. Sigmaringen. Total 134,043 Duchy of Lauenburg 458 Grand total 184,496 Until 1866 the territory of Prussia was not only divided into two portions by the king- dom of Hanover, the electorate of Hesse, and other foreign possessions lying in its midst, but was also dotted here and there by small independent principalities and duchies, which greatly hindered its unity of action and made its political geography extremely complicated. These have all been absorbed since the war of 1866, with the exception of the following small states and tracts of land, which are still subject to other German powers, though sur- rounded by Prussian territory: three com- munes in the province of Brandenburg, be- longing to Mecklenburg- Schwerin; the city of Hamburg and vicinity, with tracts belonging to it in Holstein and Hanover; the duchy of Anhalt, divided into eight portions ; the duchy of Brunswick, also in eight portions; the principalities of Schaumburg-Lippe (in two portions) and Lippe-Detinold ; the principality of Waldeck (in two portions) ; Allstedt and Oldisleben, a territory belonging to Weimar (in two portions); Volkerode, belonging to Gotha; territories belonging to Schwarzburg- Sondershausen and Schwarzburg-Rudolstein ; the village of Mumsdorf, belonging to Alten- burg; the Hessian province of Upper Hesse, with a territory belonging to it in the province of Hesse-Nassau; the principality of Birken- feld in the Rhine province, belonging to Ol- denburg ; two tracts owned by Baden and three by Wurtemberg in the Hohenzollern domains. The larger territory of the duchies of Meck- lenburg - Schwerin and Mecklenburg - Strelitz (with the adjoining LUbeck and a detached portion of Oldenburg) in the north, and the grand duchy of Oldenburg {with the adjoin- ing Bremen) in the northwest, each surround- ed by Prussian territory on three sides, but having their own seacoast, are now the only states of consequence which break in upon the outline and territorial unity of the country. In addition to the united territory enclosed by the boundaries given above, Prussia has the following outlying possessions: six communes and domains in Mecklenburg-Schwerin ; Gross- menow in Mecklenburg- Strelitz ; a commune, formerly belonging to Hanover, in the terri- tory of Hamburg; seven communes in An- halt ; four tracts in Brunswick ; one in Olden- burg ; the town of Liigde between Lippe-Det- mold and Waldeck; two villages in Waldeck; Kischlitz in Saxe- Altenburg ; the circle of Zie- genriick, in six portions, lying near Meiningen, Weimar, Rudolstadt, &c. ; Moleschutz, Abtlob- nitz, and Barchf eld in Saxe-Meiningen ; Wan- dersleben and Muhlberg in Saxe-Gotha; the circles of Schleusingen and Smalcald in Thu- ringia, in several divisions; and the domains of the Hohenzollerns, in eleven portions, scat- tered through the territory of Baden, Wurtem- berg, and Bavaria. The duchy of Lauenburg belongs to the king of Prussia, without being consolidated with the kingdom. (See LATJ- ENBTJKG.) The coast line of Prussia on the North sea is about 250 m. long ; on the Bal- tic it measures about 750 m. On both seas the shore is almost uniformly flat and low ; so much so that at several points on the North sea, and where the province of Prussia borders on the Baltic, dikes have been built to protect the tracts of nearly level land that stretch away from the water's edge, parts of them lying lower than the surface of the ocean. The only exceptions to this formation are the more rugged coasts of N. E. Schleswig, and the high chalk cliffs of the island of Rtigen, lying in the Baltic off Stralsund. On the North sea the Dollart (the estuary of the Ems), the bay of Jade, and the estuaries of the Weser and Elbe, form excellent harbors, their ports be- ing respectively Emden, Wilhelmshaven, Bre- men, and Hamburg; while on the Baltic the best are those of Kiel, Stralsund, Stettin, and Dantzic, the last two respectively at the mouths of the Oder and Vistula. The chief gulfs and bays are formed on both seas by the broadening estuaries of the rivers named, the Oder and Vistula forming at their mouths large bodies of water almost enclosed by land, known respectively as the Stettiner Haff and the Frisches Haff, while the Kurisches Haff, at the extreme N. E. of the coast, is a similar body receiving the river Memel. The greater part of the surface of Prussia is flat and low ; an extended plain, sloping toward the north, and only broken by small detached ranges of hills, forms the northern portion. The direction of such ranges is in almost every case N. E. and S. W. ; but the highest of their summits in the north is the Thurmberg, near Dantzic, 1,131 ft. The surface of the S. part is more varied, and some portions of it are mountainous and picturesque. The S. W. boundary of Silesia is formed by the Riesengebirge (highest peak about 5,300 ft.) and its various continuations. The N. and E. parts of the province of Saxony form almost a perfect level, interrupted only