Geography of Northern Europe - new book

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: those which will be described with the countries to which they exclusively belong, contribute to the civilization of Europe. For instance, the great highway of commerce from Persia to Western Europe was originally by the Danube and Rhine. Trading vessels were speedily carried down these streams by the current; upwards they used to advance by sending their boats ahead to cast an anchor, and then, by means of windlasses on board, hauling the vessel up to the point where it had been made fast, while a second anchor was being carried ahead. In like manner it was easy to travel up the Rhone and its tributary the Saone, and thence to the Seine or Loire. The Elbe was another of these great commercial streams, navigable from Hamburg up to Prague in Bohemia, and carrying the commerce of the maritime towns into the heart of Germany. This arrangement of rivers has been a great cause of the predominance of Europe over other continents. Other reasons of a still more general character deserve attention. The first of these, beyond doubt, is its narrowness as compared with Asia, which of itself tended to density of population, and therefore to improvement. This cause began to work far more strongly when the charm of the southern peninsulas of Italy, Spain, and Greece had attracted to them a disproportionate population, and when the inhabitants were forced, under pain of wanting subsistence, to improve their agriculture and to cultivate a number of arts subsidiary to it. The next cause for European improvement is closely connected with this. It is thatin Europe outward nature is not too vast or too strong for men and their work. A day's walking will overcome the highest mountain pass; even without railways a vigorous horseman has been known to cross half Europe without stopping. The rivers are ...