Morava River

“ Moors. From the Latin mauri, and Spanish moros, “black.” Elsewhere denominated “Saracens,” these Arab conquerors of the peninsula were called by the Spaniards “Moriscoes.”
Mop Fair. The name given to a fair held a few days after the periodical Statute Fair for the hiring of farm servants. The dregs of the Statute Fair are then mopped or swept up.
Moravia. From the Morava, which name expresses a marsh or boundary river.
Moravians. The followers of John Huss, driven out of Bohemia and Moravia by religious persecutions early in the eighteenth century. ”

“ The mountains of Moravia, which connect the mountains of Bohemia with those of Hungary, subside successively towards the Danube, so completely that near that river Moravia presents but one wide plain. In the environs of Brunn, the capital of the province, they are not of greater altitude than high hills, and are covered with dark firs. Their waters, retained for want of drains, form numerous ponds, and throw themselves by various streams into the Morawa, or March, and by the Morawa and the Danube. ”

“ The principal passes are those at Iglau and Zwittau to Bohemia and the Wlara Pass to Hungary. Almost the whole of Moravia belongs to the basin of the March or Morava, from which it derives its name and which rises within its territory in the Sudetes. It traverses the whole country in a course of 140 m., and enters the Danube near Pressburg. Its principal tributaries are the Thaya, the Hanna, the Iglawa with the Zwittawa and the Schwarzawa, &c. The Oder also rises among the mountains in the north-east of Moravia, but soon turns to the north and quits the country. ”

“ About a stone’s throw from “Old Road,” on the top of the hill, stands a Moravian settlement, with its neat white house and chapel; there is always an air of comfort around these settlements, which speaks to an English heart; and the Moravians themselves are a quiet, well-meaning people, diligent in the discharge of their ministerial duties, and earnestly desiring their people’s welfare. May they meet their reward!
After passing the fort of “Old Road,” the next place which attracted our notice was the salt ponds, with their fringe of mangrove trees and little islands. ”

“ We sail on the "Harmony" to Labrador, and see the neatly built settlements, the fur-clad Missionary in his dog-drawn sledge, the hardy Eskimos, the squat little children at the village schools, the fathers and mothers at worship in the pointed church, the patients waiting their turn in the surgery in the hospital at Okak. We pass on to Alaska, and steam with the Brethren up the Kuskokwim River. We visit the islands of the West Indies, where Froude, the historian, admired the Moravian Schools, and where his only complaint about these schools was that there were not enough of them. ”

“ All up the Morava Valley the roads continue far better than I have expected to find in Servia, and we wheel merrily along, the Resara Mountains covered with dark pine forests, skirting the valley on the right, sometimes rising into peaks of quite respectable proportions. The sun sinks behind the receding hills, it grows dusk, and finally dark, save the feeble light vouchsafed by the new moon, and our destination still lies several kilometres ahead. ”

“ The mean annual temperature at Brünn is 48° F. Of the total area 54·8% is occupied by arable land, 7% by meadows, 5·7% by pasturages, 1·2% by gardens, 0·5% by vineyards, while 27·4% are forests. The principal products are corn, oats, barley, potatoes, rye, beetroot, hemp, flax, hay and other fodder. Forestry is greatly developed; the breed of sheep in the Carpathians is of an improved quality, and the horses bred in the plain of the Hanna are highly esteemed. The mineral wealth of Moravia, consisting chiefly of coal and iron, is very considerable. ”

“ He had somewhat exceeded a thousand feet, when he struck a crevice in the rock, and forth gushed a powerful stream of mingled gas and salt water. Generally, the salt water in the wells was obtained in rock merely porous, and rose by hydrostatic pressure to the level of the river. To obtain the strong water of the lower strata, unmixed with the weak water above, it is the practice to insert a copper tube into the hole, making it fit tightly below by means of wrapping on the outside, and attaching the upper end to the pump, by which the water is drawn up to the furnaces on the river bank. ”

“ The road to Moravia runs along this series of bridges. When the Austrians are opposing the crossing of a river, they have a very bad habit of leaving the bridges intact up to the very last moment, to give them a means of mounting a counter-attack against the enemy, who almost always does not allow them time to do so and takes from them the bridges which they have neglected to burn. ”

“ Bolder still is that most striking specimen of natural architecture, Morwell Rock, the massiveness of which doubtless gained for it the capital distinction. To the giddy height of the topmost rock, above the far-stretching woodland of Morwellham, scarce a sound of the rippling river comes; but the silver thread of its serpentine course may be traced afar through the romantic valley, winding about Okel Tor and the great bend that forms the peninsula between Morwellham and Calstock, and then taking its favoured way through cherry orchard-groves on to the haven under the hill. ”

“ Though filled with water, the boats all rode successfully and came out below crowned with success. Often a rapid is greatly augmented by enormous boulders which have been washed into the river from some side canyon, and, acting like a dam, block the water up and cause it to roar and fret tenfold more. Black and dismal is this granite gorge; sharp and terrible the rapids, whose sheeted foam becomes fairly iridescent by contrast. ”

“ I must say, I like the Moravians: they seem to have so much open-heartedness about them​—​such patriarchal simplicity of manners. Among themselves they are ever kind and courteous, forming, as it were, one large family of affectionate brothers and sisters. They have done much good among the black race, for whose welfare the mission was particularly intended; and many happy deaths among them attest the truth. Besides their settlement in St. John’s, they have several in other parts of the island; namely, at Grace Hill, Grace Bay, Newfield, Cedar Hall, Lebanon, Gracefield, and Five Islands. ”

“ From Mount Crni Vrh the frontier follows the watershed between the Struma and the Morava by the summits of the Streser, Vilogolo, and Mesid Planina, rejoins by the Gacina, Crna Trava, Darkovska, and Drainica Plan, then the Descani Kladanec, the watershed of the High Sukowa and of the Morava, goes straight to the Stol, and descends from it so as to cut the road from Sofia to Pirot, 1,000 metres north-west of the village of Segusa. ”

“ Owing to the configuration of the soil, the climate of Moravia varies more than might be expected in so small an area, so that, while the vine and maize are cultivated successfully in the southern plains, the weather in the mountainous districts is somewhat rigorous. ”

“ Fire kindled by the friction of wood. The Germans of Moravia in like manner still light bonfires on open grounds and high places on Midsummer Eve; and they kindle besoms in the flames and then stick the charred stumps in the cabbage-fields as a powerful protection against caterpillars. On the same mystic evening Moravian girls gather flowers of nine sorts and lay them under their pillow when they go to sleep; then they dream every one of him who is to be her partner for life. ”

“ The centre of Bohemia, rich agricultural land, presents comparatively little which, apart from historical associations, would tempt the mere tourist, but Moravia, in the south-east, affords endless pleasing combinations of river, wood, and hill, and is not destitute of either gory battlefield or picturesque castle. ”

“ This truly is the great mission of Moravia, of her people and of her art.
Art to be real should be a natural phenomenon, an organic growth, as a tree growing from the soil that it nourishes. Uprka is such an artist, growing from the soil living amongst the peasants, equal among equals. Nowhere else could he live. A cosmopolitan city spoils men by its distracting influences, Uprka runs away from the city. He lives a simple life—works in the garden and on the fields, and paints—paints incessantly the sunlit simple people that he loves so well. ”

“ Rafts, however, can use such waterways to the extent of 38,000 miles. The chief rivers of Russia are the Volga, with a drainage area of 563,000 miles, and a course of over 2000 miles, making it the longest river in Europe; the Ural, with a drainage area of 95,000 square miles, and a course of 1446 miles; the Dwina, with a drainage area of nearly 100,000 miles, and a course of 650 miles; the Petchora, with a drainage area of 127,000 miles and a length of 915 miles; the Don, with a drainage area of 170,000 square miles, and a length of 980 miles ”

“ By good luck the streams ramping down from the mountains into the gorge below the slide kept two or three times its average flow in the river, and so the Austrians—who didn’t know its habits very well—failed to notice that anything unusual had come off up-stream. Our [Pg 153] scouts reported that the water in the lower lake had not risen much, and that it seemed to stand at about fifteen feet above the danger mark. The Austrians, they said, did not appear to be paying any more attention to the dam than usual. ”

“ Moravia (2,277) , a crownland in the N. of Austria, lying between the Moravian and the Carpathian Mountains, with Silesia on the N., Hungary on the E., Lower Austria on the S., and Bohemia on the W.; is mountainous, with lofty plains in the S., and is watered by the March, a tributary of the Danube; the valleys and plains are fertile; grain, beetroot, flax, hemp, and vines are grown; cattle and poultry rearing and bee-keeping occupy the peasantry; sugar, textiles, and tobacco are the chief manufactures; there are coal and iron mines, graphite and meerschaum are found ”

“ In the opening years of the 9th century, Moravia stretched from the Bavarian borders to the Hungarian river Drina, and from the banks of the Danube, beyond the Carpathian mountains, to the river Stryi in Southern Poland. Into this territory Christianity had been ushered as early as A. D. 801, by Charlemagne, who, as his custom was, enforced baptism at the point of the sword, at least as far as the king was concerned. Efforts were subsequently made by the archbishops of Salzburg and Passau to fan this first feeble flicker into something like a flame. ”

“ The Murray, fed by the lofty mountains on the east, carries to the sea a body of fresh water sufficient to irrigate the whole country, which is in general so level even to a great distance from its banks that the abundant waters of the river might probably be turned into canals for the purpose either of supplying deficiencies of natural irrigation at particular places, or of affording the means of transport across the wide plains.
The high mountains in the east have not yet been explored but their very aspect is refreshing in a country where the summer heat is often very oppressive. ”

“ Austria 362 km, Germany 646 km, Poland 658 km,
Slovakia 215 km
Coastline:
0 km (landlocked)
Maritime claims:
none (landlocked)
Climate:
temperate; cool summers; cold, cloudy, humid winters
Terrain:
Bohemia in the west consists of rolling plains, hills, and plateaus
surrounded by low mountains; Moravia in the east consists of very
hilly country
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Elbe River 115 m highest point: Snezka 1,602 m
Natural resources: hard coal, soft coal, kaolin, clay, graphite, timber
Land use: arable land: 40% permanent crops: 3.04% other: 56.96% (1998 est.) ”

“ Two or three hundred yards away, no gap or break in the plain is observable. Sometimes the river swells almost to the top of its banks, and then the effect must be terrible. There is a ford near Podgorica, which the peasants use to avoid the long détour by the bridge, but woe to the man who makes a false step. Three women, carrying loads of wood, lost their footing during our stay, and were drowned. In its waters we swam every evening, and even in midsummer, when the river is low, the strength of the current required an expert and powerful swimmer to breast it, and it was invariably very cold. ”

“ Roughly speaking, the Moore flows in a tortuous course from north-east to south-west, About four miles west of Mogumber it receives the north branch, which flows from the direction its name implies. Some 12 miles from its mouth it is joined by the Gin-Gin Brook. These are the only tributaries of any importance. During the rainy season some of the lower reaches of the river expand into small lakes. The upper portions of the Moore call for little comment. The volume of the stream is at all times very moderate, and its valley of no great width. ”

“ It is on the right bank, on the verge of the upland prairie, about forty feet above the river, of which the immediate valley is about six hundred yards wide. The stream is divided into various branches by small islands, among which it runs with a swift current. The bed of the river is sand and gravel, the water very clear, and here may be called a mountain-stream. This region appears to be entirely free from the limestones and marls which give to the Lower Platte its yellow and dirty color. The Black hills lie between the stream and the mountains, whose snowy peaks glitter a few miles beyond. ”

“ The river is remarkable for the rapidity with which it rises and falls, and for its swift torrent, which, when in flood, often takes a straight course at the cost of much injury to life and property. In 1829 Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, with powerful dramatic effect, told the story of the floods which then ravaged Morayshire along the courses of the rivers descending from the Monadh-liath and Cairngorm Mountains, notably the Findhorn and Spey, both of which rose to an unexampled height, in some parts of their course to fifty feet above their natural level. ”