Oder River

“ Ohlau River, an insignificant drab-colored stream, rises well south of Breslau, about Strehlen; makes, at first, direct eastward towards the Oder; and then, when almost close upon it, breaks off to north, and saunters along, irregularly parallel to Oder, for twenty miles farther, before it can fall fairly in. To this circumstance both Breslau and a Town of Ohlau owe their existence ”

“ The Houses, which are all of Brick, are uniform, and the Streets as strait as a Line. The chief of them2 terminate in a great Square in the middle of the Town, where there is a Statue of the King of Prussia. The River Oder is of great advantage to the Commerce of Crossen, which carries on a considerable Trade in Linnen-Cloth and Earthen Ware.
Going out of Crossen, we pass this River by a Bridge, as we do a second time over to Francfort, a considerable City of the Marquisate of Brandenbourg, famous for its Fairs, and its University. This City has stood the Shock of various Revolutions. ”

“ This is the significance of the situations of Mainz, Lyons, Belgrade, St. Louis, and Khartoum. The course followed by flowing water is far less direct than that of historical movements; the latter take the shortest way, and do not continue along the stream where a loop is formed; or they may follow a tributary that runs on in the original direction of the main stream, as in the case of the very ancient highway along the Oder and the Neisse to Bohemia. The sides of sharp angles formed by a river in its course lead to a salient point as, Regensburg and Orléans. ”

“ Spree, a river of Prussia, rises in East Saxony close to the Bohemian border, follows a winding and generally N. and NW. course of 227 m. till its Junction with the Havel at Spandau; chief towns on its banks are Bautzen, Kottbus, Lübben, and Berlin; is connected with the Oder by the Frederick William Canal. ”

“ Breslau, with its suburbs, has a population of one hundred and twenty-five thousand, and has its attractions for the students, nine hundred of whom attend the University, which has a public library of three hundred thousand volumes. There is an interesting Zoological Museum, some antique churches, and other objects worth seeing. The public walks upon the former bastions, now planted with trees, with views upon the river Oder, whose branches traverse the city, are quite pretty, but fevers are the natural result there in summer. It is a bustling, active, trading city. ”

“ Another short ridge, the Chęcinski hills in Kielce, follows the same direction along the Nida river and reaches 1345 ft. south of the Nida, the Olkusz hills, linked on to spurs of the Beskides, fill up the south-west corner of Poland, reaching 1620 ft, and containing the chief mineral wealth of the country; while a fourth range, 1000 to 1300 ft. high, runs north-west past Częnstochowa, separating the Oder from the Warta (Warthe) . In the north, the plain of Poland is bordered by a flat, broad swelling, 600 to 700 ft. ”

“ The main channel follows the left side of the valley and finally expands into the Pommersches, or Stettiner Haff, which is connected with the sea by three arms, the Peene, the Swine and the Dievenow, forming the islands of Usedom and Wollin. The Swine, in the middle, is the main channel for navigation. The chief tributaries of the Oder on the left bank are the Oppa, Glatzer Neisse, Katzbach, Bober and Lausitzer Neisse ”

“ The city has three suburbs, fine streets, public squares, and gardens, a theatre, many charitable institutions, a Roman Catholic church, a synagogue, and several Protestant churches. The university was removed to Breslau in 1810; a gymnasium still remains. Beyond the wooden bridge which connects the old town on the left bank of the Oder with the suburb on the right bank is a monument to Prince Leopold of Brunswick, who was drowned here in 1785, while attempting to rescue a family during an inundation. ”

“ The way from Andreasberg to the Brocken leads along the Rehberger Graben, which carry water about six miles for the oreworks. After going through a thick pine wood, I came out on the mountain-side, where rough crags overhung the way above, and through the tops of the trees I had glimpses into the gorge below. It was scenery of the wildest character. Directly opposite rose a mountain wall, dark and stern through the gloomy sky; far below the little stream of the Oder foamed over the rocks with a continual roar, and one or two white cloud-wreaths were curling up from the forests. ”

“ Oder and Upper Spree Navigation.—The old Friedrich-Wilhelm Canal, constructed over two hundred years since, was till recently the only means of water communication through this district; but the dimensions of the channel, as well as the locks, were too small for present requirements, and in preference to reconstructing the whole work, it was decided to cut another channel, joining the Oder a few miles further from Frankfurt. The country traversed is easier than in the case of the Ems, and as the Oder does not take such large vessels as the Ems, the dimensions of the canal are smaller ”

“ Its maritime development began in the midst of adverse natural conditions in the northern confines of the country. The southern Baltic and the North Sea are both shallow. Sandbanks and winter ice hamper navigation in the easternmost stretch of these waters. An outlet exists only in the round-about and rock-studded Danish straits. The Oder, Elbe and Ems are constantly discharging material collected from the mountainous heart of Europe. The harbors of the northwestern shore are artificial and require ceaseless watching, for all of which German navigation pays a heavy annual tax. ”

“ The earliest important undertaking with a view of improving the waterway was due to the initiative of Frederick the Great, who recommended the diversion of the river into a new and straight channel in the swampy tract of land known as the Oderbruch, near Cüstrin. ”

“ That sounds like a most beautiful view, Miss Schlegel.”
“So I say, but Helen, who will muddle things, says no, it’s like music. The course of the Oder is to be like music. It’s obliged to remind her of a symphonic poem. The part by the landing-stage is in B minor, if I remember rightly, but lower down things get extremely mixed. There is a slodgy theme in several keys at once, meaning mud-banks, and another for the navigable canal, and the exit into the Baltic is in C sharp major, pianissimo.” ”

“ To all appearance: it was once some big Island or chain of Islands in the Oder deluges: it is still cut with sudden hollows,—KUHGRUND (Cow-Hollow) , TIEFE WEG (Deep Way) , and westernmost of all, and most important for us here, HOHLE GRUND (Big Hollow, let us call it; 'LOUDON'S Hollow' people subsequently called it) ;—and is everywhere strangely tumbled up into knolls blunt or sharp, the work of primeval Oder in his rages. In its highest knolls,—of which let readers note specially the Spitzberg, the Muhlberg, the Judenberg,—it rises nowhere to 150 feet ”

“ To say that the Berlin Falls begin two miles below the village is no more than the truth, since at this distance the river was sheeted in foam from shore to shore. For these two miles its bed is so thickly sown with rocks that it is like a river stretched on the rack. The whole river, every drop of it, is hemmed in by enormous masses of granite, forming a long, narrow, and rocky gorge, down which it bursts in one mad plunge, tossing and roaring like the Maelstrom. What fury! What force! The solid earth shakes, and the very air trembles. ”

“ Both rivers, coming from the Giant Mountains, hasten directly north; but Oder, bulging out easterly in his sandy course, is obliged to turn fairly westward again; and at Glogau, and a good space farther, flows in that direction;—till once Bober strikes in, almost at right angles, carrying Oder with HIM, though he is but a branch, straight northward again. Northward, but ever slower, to the swollen Pommern regions, and sluggish exit into the Baltic there.
One of the worst features is the state of the weather. On Sunday, at Breslau, we noticed thunder bursting out on an important occasion ”

“ It was fun, but overcrowded, for the rest of Pomerania had gone there too. Helen loved the country, and her letter glowed with physical exercise and poetry. She spoke of the scenery, quiet, yet august; of the snow-clad fields, with their scampering herds of deer; of the river and its quaint entrance into the Baltic Sea; of the Oderberge, only three hundred feet high, from which one slid all too quickly back into the Pomeranian plains, and yet these Oderberge were real mountains, with pine-forests, streams, and views complete. “It isn’t size that counts so much as the way things are arranged.” ”

“ The ridge is clay covered to the flat summit, where knolls of gneiss project. Beyond the valley of the Odei, to the north, is a rolling forested country with hills clay-covered to the tops, rising by gradual slopes to about a hundred feet above the intervening valleys, that are themselves from twenty to fifty feet above the river level. For the next twenty-eight miles the river, flowing in a rock-bound basin, has the character of a long, narrow lake from half a mile to over a mile in width. ”

“ From the ramparts we enjoyed a magnificent view of the whole river and the country between Andernach and Stolzenfels. Below us was triangular-shaped Coblentz, and its row of handsome buildings facing the River Rhine, the bridge of boats and never-ending moving diorama sort of scene, while at the right of the town glided the blue Moselle, its azure waters moving unmixed as they flowed along with the Rhine, and the railroad bridge spanning the stream with its graceful arches ”

“ Marshal Augereau's corps remained for a fortnight in Berlin to reinforce the Guard during the long stay which the Emperor made in the town, and left about the middle of November, heading first for the Oder, which we crossed at Kostrzyn, and then on to the Vistula whose bank we reached at Bromburg (?Bydgoszcz) . We were now in Poland, the poorest and nastiest country in Europe...! After the Oder, no more made roads: we marched on loose gravel or appalling mud. Most of the land was uncultivated and the few inhabitants we came across were dirty to a degree which defies the imagination. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Judged on its merits, and not by the standard of the Elbe, it is a very important river. Emden is a flourishing and growing port. For shallow craft the stream is navigable far into the interior, where, aided by tributaries and allied canals (notably the connection with the Rhine at Dortmund, then approaching completion) , it taps the resources of a great area. ”

“ No railroad comes within fifty miles; the nearest settler was many miles away—and that settler a Klamath Indian. At the foot of the long grade we came to a sluggish, green-tinted stream—Lost River—which we followed nearly to our destination. They call it Lost River since it vanishes from sight in the vast marshes of Tule Lake to the south.
The last twelve miles out of Klamath Falls were the most trying of a hard day’s run. The road bed was hidden in a foot of flour-like white limestone dust—deep enough to effectually hide the unmerciful chuck-holes and to make driving a blind chance. ”

“ Toward the south the soldiers must cross narrow ravines in all directions, often covered with wild, thick undergrowth. The chief river is the Vistula, which enters by the southern boundary and flows first north, then northwest, skirting the plateau region at a height of 700 feet, finally making its exit near Thorn, thence on to the Baltic through East Prussia. Its valley divides the hilly tracts into two parts: Lublin heights in the east and the Sedomierz heights to the westward. ”

“ Nearly all the tributaries of the two big rivers flow from the snow banks and the canons of the Blue Mountains. Though conveying in the aggregate during the flood season an immense volume, the tributaries are too swift for navigation. They supply abundant water for irrigation where needed, and each is a superb trout stream. The largest, the Grande Ronde, is in truth an Oregon river, for its main supplies come from the Grande Ronde and Wallowa valleys, but it crosses the corner of Asotin County and enters Snake River within that scenic country. ”

“ To the west the Oder and Bober may be taken as their boundary. ♦White Chrobatia.♦ But the upper course of these rivers is the home of another kindred people, the northern branch of the Chrobatians or Croats, whose land of White Chrobatia stretched on both sides of the Carpathians. These Slaves of the central and lower Oder and Vistula would seem to be best distinguished as Lechs; Poland is the name of the land rather than of the people. ”

“ Below Wangen, the first we come to is in the bay between Oberstaad and Kattenhorn. From its widely scattered remains this station appears to have extended over a large area; but its piles are sparingly seen, and its site has been little investigated. The relics found are a few stone celts and pottery.
Hof bei Stein.—A little below the bridge which crosses the outlet of the Rhine at Stein there is a shallow part of the river known as "Auf dem Hof," which on rare occasions, when the water is low, becomes exposed. ”

“ Nothing is jollier than loafing against the broad balustrades of this solid old veteran, as the students love to do, and lazily take note of the river’s tinted reflections, the ripple and eddy about the piers, the mirroring of the arches in perfect reverse, and watch the deep green shadows of the hills creep out and [257] steal across. Great rafts come downstream laden with the output of the Odenwald and Black Forest, and swift steamers hurry under the massive arches bound upstream for the mountain towns or downward to Mannheim. ”