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AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE. (1899). Becke and Jeffery are journalists as well as novelists.

In general literature, Australia has had only one noteworthy name — Marcus Clarke. Born in Kensington, in 1846, he went to Melbourne at the age of 18, and after a short and suc- cessful career died in 1881. He contributed many sketches to various journals and Christ- mas "books, and founded two periodicals, which soon came to an end. Admirable are his many short, realistic pieces, as Pretty Dick (an idyl), How the Circus Came to Bullock Town, Gentle- man George's Bride, and others of the same type. He wrote pantomimes, comedies, bur- lesques, and several pamphlets. To the Aus- tralasian he contributed, under the name of the 'Peripatetic Philosopher,' a series of brilliant and humorous observations on society. He was also facile at burlesque in rhyme. But the work by which Clarke is best remembered is His Natural Life (1874) — a novel, in which are depicted the brutalities of the prison settle- ments.

Consult: Turner and Sutherland, Development of Australian Literature (New York, 1898); Byrne, Australian Writers (London, 1896); Martin, Beginnings of an Australian Literature (London, 1899); Sladen, Australian Poets, 1788-1888, an anthology (New York, 1890); and Australian Ballads, in Canterbury Poets (London, 1885-90). See ; ; and.

AUSTRALIAN OATS, See.

AUSTRASIA, ;is-trri's!u-a (Med. Lat., from OHG. ostar, eastern), or The East Kingdom. The name of the eastern possessions of the Mero- vingians, which extended from the boundaries of Thuringia and Bavaria to the rivers Meuse and Scheldt. Metz was its capital and Verdun its most western town. Its population was almost wholly Germanic. The designation arose after the death of Clotaire I. in 561. Under the Caro- lingians the name disappears. See ;.

AUSTRIA, The cradle and nucleus of the Austrian Empire, It lies on both sides of the Danube, from the mouth of the Inn to the borders of Hungary, and embraces the crown-lands of Lower and Upper Austria and Salzburg (q.v.).

AUS'TRIA-HUN'GARY, or, officially, (Med. Lat. Austria, from Ger. Oesterreich, eastern realm + Hungary). The largest European country after Russia and the Swedish-Norwegian monarchy. It forms a compact territory in southern Europe, lying between latitudes 42° and 51° N. and between longitudes 9° 30' and 26° 30' E., and is bordered for a shorter distance by the sea than any other great European State. Its coast-line comprises the greater part of the eastern shore of the Adriatic, the bulk of the country receding to a great distance from the sea. It is irregularly bounded on the north by Saxony, Prussia, and Russia; on the east by Russia and Rumania; on the south (including Bosnia and Herzegovina) by Rumania, Servia, and Montenegro; on the southwest by the Adriatic Sea and Italy, and on the west by Switzerland and Bavaria. The former Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, though, in an official sense, merely occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary, and not

reckoned as an integral part of the Empire, must be regarded now as virtually incorporated in it. The total area of the Austrian dominions, not including the 23,262 square miles occupied by the two provinces just mentioned, is 240,942 square miles, nearly half of which (115,903 square miles) is occupied by the crown-lands represent- ed in the Austrian Reichsrat, Vienna, and the greater half by the Kingdom of Hungary or the lands represented in the Magyar Parliament, sit- ting at Budapest. The greatest length from east to west is about 800 miles; greatest breadth from north to south, 650 miles. The following are the area and population, in 1890 and 1900, of the several divisions of the monarchy:

Crown-Lands Area in square Miles Popula- tion, in 1890 Popula- tion, in 1900 Den- sitv, in 1900 7.654 4.631 2.7G7 8,670 4,005 3,856 3,084 11,324 20,U6« 8,583 1,387 30,307 4,035 4,340 108,258 16,773 8 2,661,799 785.831 173.510 1.282.708 361,008 498,958 695,384 928.769 6.834,034 2,276,870 605,649 6.607,816 646,591 627,426 15.231,627 2,201.327 30,337 3,086,382 809,918 193,247 1,356,058 367,344 608,348 755,183 979,878 6,318,280 2,435,081 680.529 7,295,538 729,921 591,697 16,768,143 2,397.249 38,139 45.310,835 403.2 Upper Austria 174.9 69.8 155.3 91.4 131.8 Coast Districts (Gorz and Gradisca, Trieste, Istriai T.vrol and Vcrarlberg.. 244.8 86.6 314.9 283.7 Silesia 342.4 240.0 180.8 Dalmatia 119.9 Hungary and Transyl- 154.9 Croatia aud Slavonia.. 142.9 4767.3 Total 240,942 41,369,204 188,0

The last three divisions constitute the lands of the Hungarian Crown. The provinces represented in the Reichsrat of Vienna are called collectively Cisleithania, or the 'country on this side of the Leitha' (a small stream forming part of the boundary between Lower Austria and Hungary), while the Hungarian half of the monarchy is called Transleithania, or the 'country beyond the Leitha.'

The density of population of the whole country in 1890 was 171 to the square mile. The increase of population during the last decade of the century was, therefore, about 9 per cent.

Austria-Hungary is one of the most mountainous countries of Europe. The mountains are comprised in three great systems — the Alps, the Carpathians, and the Bohemian Highlands, which embrace the Sudetic Mountain System, the principal member of which is the Riesengebirge (Giant Mountains), the Erzegebirge (Ore Mountains), the Böhmerwald, and a few minor ranges. The Alps cover the crownlands of Tyrol, Salzburg, Carinthia, Carniola, Styria, and the parts of Upper and Lower Austria south of the Danube. The eastern spurs of the Alps stretch through Croatia toward the southwestern part of Hungary. The total area of the Austro-Hungarian Alps is estimated at about 40,000 square miles, of which nearly 700 square miles are covered with glaciers. Their highest peaks are in the Rhætian and Noric Alps, which extend from Switzerland to the Danube. The Ortler Spitze, the loftiest summit in Austria-Hungary, rises to a height of nearly 12,800 feet. The Carpathian Mountains, greatly