sentatives at Washington. Stales, &c.) GEORGICS. [VIRGIL.] (Darby's View of the United mann von Meyer, in his most useful work, 'Palæologica zur Geschichte der Erde und ihrer Geschöpfe,' (8vo. Frankfort, 1832), widely separates the two subgenera. The first, GEORGINA, a name sometimes given to the Dahlia, Geosaurus, he exemplifies by Geosaurus Sömmerringi, but improperly. GEORGIUM SIDUS. [URANUS.] GEO'RYCHUS, Illiger's name for the Lemmings of Cuvier. [MURIDE.] GEOSAURUS, Cuvier's name for a subgenus of Saurians, found in a fossil state only, and considered by him as intermediate between the Crocodiles and the Monitors. The author of a review in the 'Zoological Journal' (vol. iv. p. 255) on the 'Nova Acta physico-medica Academiæ Cæsarea Leopoldino-Carolina Naturæ Curiosorum,' tom. xiii. (Bonn. 1826-7), with reference to an article therein, by Dr. Ritgen, in which the doctor proposes the restoration of the pelves of three species of animals from the fossil fragments of their skeletons, has this passage: The first of them is the Lacerta gigantea of Soemmering, Mosasaurus of Conybeare and Parkinson, for which Dr. Ritgen, without assigning a single reason for the change of name, is pleased to adopt the more than sesquipedalian title of Halilimnosaurus crocodiloides. This appellation however may serve, in some degree, to explain his views of its affinities and original habitation, inasmuch as it shows that he regards it as a lacertine animal resembling a crocodile and inhabiting salt-water marshes, intermediate therefore between the extinct Enaliosauri, or sea-lizards, and the living crocodiles of fresh-water streams. It is, moreover, the Geosaurus of Cuvier's "Ossemens Fossiles." There is some little obscurity here, which we will endeavour to dispel. That Cuvier's name, Geosaurus, should be retained according to the laws of nomenclature, there can be no doubt; and it appears that this provisional name was given, not in reference to the nabits of the extinct lizard, but, to use Cuvier's own words, "par allusion à Terre, mère des Géans ")-by an allusion to Terra, the Earth-Ge (F) of the Greeks, the fabled mother of the Giants. Indeed the sclerotic plates still remaining in the portion of the cranium figured by Cuvier in his "Ossemens Fossiles," could not have escaped the observation of that acute zoologist (who was so eminently alive to the laws of co-existence), as indicating aquatic habits. That he considered it subgenerically different from Mosasaurus appears from the following observations: Immediately after the allusion to the origin of the name, Cuvier says, "I cannot retain for it the epithet giganteus (Je ne peux lui laisser l'épithète gigantesque); for, in the great genus Lacerta we have already the animal of Maestricht, or Mosasaurus, which greatly surpassed it, and there is also another (the Megalosaurus) which is very superior in size-(nous avons d'abord l'animal de Maestricht, ou Mosasaurus, que le surpasse de beaucoup, et nous allons en voir un autre (le Mégalosaurus), qui lui est aussi très superieur)." Again, in a note to the previous article in the Ossemens Fossiles,' on Mosasaurus:- With regard to the fossil animal of Monheim (Geosaurus'), which M. de Soemmering has also regarded as identical with that of Maestricht (Mosasaurus), we shall see in a succeeding article that it differs from the Maestricht animal in many respects.' M. Her syn. Lacerta gigantea, Sömmering, Halilimnosaurus crocodiloides of Ritgen. The second, Mosasaurus, Conybeare, Saurochampsa, Wagler, he exemplifies by Mosasaurus Camperi, syn. M. Hofmanni, Lacerta gigantea, Sömmering, zum Theil (in part). In his 'System der Fossilen Saurier,' which fossil Saurians he divides into four sections, denoted by the letters A, B, C, and D, he places Geosaurus under section A-(Saurier mit zehen, ähnlich denen an den lebenden Sauriern *), and Mosasaurus under section C-(Saurier mit flossartigen Gliedmassen +). The remains upon which Cuvier founded his subgenus were found in the canton Meulenhardt, at the depth of ten feet, and a few paces from the crocodile described by Cuvier (Gavial of Monheim and of Boll; 'Oss. Foss.' tom. v. pp. 120-125: Crocodilus priscus of Sömmering; Eolodon priscus of Hermann von Meyer), by the labourers employed to work the mines of granular iron (fer en grains) which fills the fissures of the strata of calcareous schist. Saurians with toes similar to those of existing Saurians, and either four-toed or five-toed. Geosaurus is placed in the four-toed group, with an ind ca tion of doubt, in consequence of the want of sufficient materials. Saurians with fin-like extremities, under which Mosasaurus is classed without any expression of doubt Geosaurus Sommeringii, from Cuvier's figures: a, b, part of the head, which has been compressed; some of the sclerotic plates are still left within the orbit, as seen in fig. b; c, d, e, teeth which had preserved their hard shining brown enamel; f. g, vertebra;-f exhibits a part of the column; near the last vertebrae are the remains of the pelvis and femora; g, five vertebræ like the first of those in figure f. Fragments of ribs in disorder are seen near both sets. Sömmering, to whom the Count of Reysach gave these precious fragments, to use Cuvier's expression (for, in consequence of the nature of the bed in which they were discovered they were not well preserved), published an accurate account of them in the 'Memoirs of Munich' for 1816, accompanied by a lithographic illustration, which Cuvier reduced, and published in his Ossemens Fossiles;' Sömmering however thought that the bones belonged to a young individual of the Maestricht animal (Mosasaurus). The bones were nearly calcined. Near the remains of the Saurian were a flat ammonite four inches in width, a fragment of bluish shell, and a great quantity of small scales, which, according to Sömmering's conjecture, belonged either to fishes or perhaps to the animal itself, if it was a Monitor, or some other lizard with small scales. Our limits will not allow us to point out the differences between Geosaurus and Mosasaurus, excepting that they are to be found principally in the teeth and in the vertebra. The reader who wishes to pursue the inquiry further has only to consult the works above referred to, for the details which have led to the conclusion that the animals are different. The localities given by Hermann von Meyer are the Flötz; Solenhofen slate (Schiefer von Solenhofen); and, with reference to another specimen (with a query), for which he tefers to Dekay, 'Ann. of the Lyc. of New-York,' vol. iii., the marl of the green sand in New Jersey (Mergel des Grünsandes in New Jersey). GERA, the chief town of the three principalities of Reuss-Schleiz, Reuss-Greiz, and Reuss-Lobenstein and Ebersdorf, which are on the western borders of the kingdom of Saxony, is in 50° 52′ N. lat. and 12° 6' E long. The present town is mostly of modern construction, the old town having been almost entirely destroyed by fire in September, 1780. It is agreeably situated in a valley on the banks of the White Elster, and contains about 860 houses and 9200 inhabitants. The streets are in general broad and at right angles to one another, and embellished with a number of handsome houses. Gera is the seat of government for the Reuss principalities, and of a Protestant consistory. It has a fine town-hall; five churches, independently of the high church of St. John, which is in ruins; a highly esteemed gymnasium attended by between 600 and 700 pupils, who are separated into five classes for such as are intended for a learned or scientific profession, and six for those designed for commercial pursuits, &c.; a seminary for scholars of the higher ranks of society; a school for educating teachers; a house of correction, to which an orphan asylum is attached; two hospitals; a free school, and other scholastic establishments. Gera, from the enterprise and industry of its inhabitants, has been called Little Leipzig.' It possesses numerous manufactures, particularly of fine woollens, mixed cotton and silk goods, woollen and cotton yarns, china, earthenware, printed cottons and woollens, oil-cloth, tobacco, carriages, chemical colours, hats, leather, musical instruments, soap, beer, &c. A canal has been made from the Elster, which passes through the town, and is of great use to the manufacturers. The position of Gera secures to it a considerable transit trade with the adjacent countries. The Gera china is made at Schloss Untermhaus, which, together with the princely residences of Osterstein, Köstritz, and Ronneburg, are in the vicinity of the town. GERA'CE. [CALABRIA.] GERANIA'CEA, a natural order of Exogens, the distinguishing character of which is to have a fruit composed of five cocci or cases, connected with as many thin flat styles, consolidated round a long conical beak, and from which they are separated with violence at the time of maturity by the rolling back of the styles. In many respects they are allied to Malvacea, especially in the arrangement of their petals, the tendency to union among the stamens, and in their stipules. It is probable that Tropæolum, although usually looked upon as the type of a distinct order, is only a variation from the typical character of Geraniaceæ. These plants are usually astringent and odoriferous; their smell varying from a disagreeable hircine character to that of great sweetness. The maximum of the order occurs at the Cape of Good Hope under the form of the genus Pelargonium, hundreds of beautiful varieties of which are now favourite objects of cultivation in gardens: these are chiefly bushes. Those species of the order which inhabit Europe are herbaceous plants, with regular flowers and five or ten perfect stamens; a few are handsome enough to be cultivated, but the major part consists of mere weeds. The flowers of the whole order are usually of some tint of purple ; it is therefore remarkable that a few species should exist in which the colour is a pure bright yellow; as in Geranium chrysanthum, a native of the South of Europe. Geranium pratense. 1, a magnified calyx, in the centre of which is the rostrum, or beak, from which the cocci are rolling back. GERARD, a celebrated translator of the middle ages, was born at Cremona, in Lombardy, in 1114. He early applied himself to philosophical studies, but as they were in a very low condition at that time amongst the Western Christians, he went to Spain, where learning was in a flourishing state amongst the Arabs. He there became thoroughly acquainted with the Arabic, and applied himself particularly to the translation of different works from that language into Latin. Gerard returned to his native town, where he died in 1187, at the age of 73. His principal translations which have reached us are: 1. Theoria Planetarum. 2. Allaken de Causis Crepusculorum.' 3. Geomantia Astronomica,' which was translated into French, and published under the title of Géomantie Astronomique, in 1669 and 1682. 4. The Treatise on Medicine, of Avicenna, known by the name of the 'Canons.' 5. An Abridgment of the Medical Treatise of Rhazis, made by Abouli Ben David. 6. A Treatise on Medicine, by the same Rhazis. 7. Practica sive Breviarium Medicum' of Serapion. 8. The Book of Albengnefit De Virtute Medicinarum et Ciborum.' 9. The Therapeutica' of Serapion. 10. The work of Jshak, De Definitionibus.' 11. Albucasis Methodus Medendi,' (libri iii.). 12. Ars Parva' of Galen. 13. 'Commentaries on the Prognostics of Hippocrates.' All these works have been often printed. 6 GERARDE, JOHN, a famous herbalist of the time of Queen Elizabeth, was born at Nantwich in Cheshire, in the year 1545, and was educated as a surgeon. He removed to London, where he obtained the patronage of Lord Burghley, who was himself a lover of plants, and had the best collection in his garden of any nobleman in the kingdom. Gerarde had the superintendence of this fine garden, and retained his employment, as he tells us himself, for twenty years. His London residence was in Holborn, where also he had a large physic garden of his own, which was probably the first of its kind in England for the number and variety of its productions. It should seem that in his younger days he had taken a voyage into the Baltic, since he mentions having seen the wild pines growing about Narva. He also says of the bay or laurel tree (Herbal, pp. 1177, 1223); ‘I have not seen any one tree thereof growing in Denmark, Suecia, Poland, Livonia, or Russia, or in any of those wild countries where I have travelled.' Among the Lansdowne manuscripts in the British Museum (No. cvii., art. 92) is a letter of Gerarde's own drawing up for Lord Burghley to send to the University of Cambridge, recommending the establishment of a physic garden there, to encourage the facultie of simpling Gerarde himself, whom Lord Burghley calls his servant, to be placed at the head of it: So that if you intend a work of such emolument to yourselves and all young students, I shall be glad to have nominated and furnished you with so expert an herbalist; and youselves, I trust, will think well of the motion and the man.' As we read no more of it, it is probable that the scheme did not take effect. The earliest publication of Gerarde was the catalogue of his own garden in Holborn: 'Catalogus Arborum, Fruticum, ac Plantarum, tam indigenarum quam exoticarum, in horto Johannis Gerardi, civis et chirurgi Londinensis, nascentium,' impensis J. Norton, 1596, 4to.; reprinted in 4to. 1599. The first edition was dedicated to Lord Burghley; the second, after that nobleman's death, in very flattering terms, to Sir Walter Raleigh. A copy of the first edition (of extreme rarity) is preserved in the library of the British Museum, where it proved of great use to Mr. Aiton in preparing his Hortus Kewensis,' by enabling him to ascertain the time when many old plants were first cultivated. GERBERT, afterwards pope Sylvester II., was born of poor parents at Aurillac in Auvergne. The time of his birth does not appear to be known; he died in 1003, at a very advanced age. When young he entered the monastery of St. Gerauld at Aurillac, and in that school commenced his studies. He afterwards visited Catalonia, where he learned mathematics from a Spanish bishop. About 968 he made a journey to Rome, a circumstance which gave him the opportunity of still further satisfying his thirst for knowledge. When Otho I. conferred on him the abbey of Bobbio, Gerbert's industry was not diminished by his promotion. He employed himself actively in teaching, and for several years, while he continued to reside at Bobbio, his fame attracted students from all quarters. Though he kept his abbey till his elevation to the pontifical chair, he gave up his residence in Italy on account of the uneasy life which he led there. From Italy he is said to have gone to Germany, where he became the tutor of young Otho, afterwards the second emperor of that name. From Germany he went to Reims, and was made secretary to the archbishop of Reims, and master of the cathedral-school. It is as a teacher that Gerbert established a reputation which few men since his time have acquired. Under his care the school of Reims became one of the first in Europe, and its high character was maintained for near a century after his death. Among Gerbert's pupils we find the names of Nithard and Remi. In A.D. 992 Gerbert was promoted to the archbishopric of Reims, from which however he was deposed a few years after his elevation. In 998 he received the archbishopric of Ravenna from the emperor Otho III.; and in 999 he was elected to the pontifical chair, which he filled for nearly five years, under the name of Sylvester II. There is no doubt that Gerbert was a man of great ability and of very extensive acquirements for his age. He was also a most voluminous writer. The Benedictines of St. In 1597 came out his Herbal, or General History of Maur (Histoire Littéraire de la France, tom vi., 577, &c.) Plants, printed by John Norton, in folio. The wood-cuts have devoted many pages to the consideration of his writwith which it was embellished were procured from Franc-ings; but they have shown no great discrimination in their fort, being the same blocks which had been used for the Kreuterbuch,' the German herbal of Tabernæmontanus, fol. Franc. on the Mayn, 1588. A second edition of Gerarde's 'Herbal' was published by Dr. Thomas Johnson, with emendations and corrections, fol. Lond. 1633; and this work continued to be one of the best sources of botanical intelligence, at least to the beginning of the eighteenth century Gerarde died about the year 1607. (Pulteney's Sketches of the Progress of Botany in England, vol. i., p. 110-125; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict., vol. xv., p. 414.) GERBERT, MARIN, P ince-Abbot of St. Blaise, near Freiburg, a learned and labor.ous writer on music, was born at Horb-sur-le-Necker, in 1722. Attached from his youth to church-music, he cultivated it assiduously, and having determined to write a history of that highly important branch of the art, which he thought intimately connected with his sacred profession, he travelled during three years in France, Italy, and various parts of Germany, for the purpose of collecting materials in aid of his work, which was published in two quarto volumes, in 1774, and entitled De Cantu et Musica Sacra, à prima Ecclesiæ Etate usque ad præsens Tempus. He divides his history into three parts. The first finishes with the pontificate of St. Gregory; the second reaches the 15th century; and the third comes down to nearly the date of his own volumes. Though the illustrious Abbot directed his attention almost wholly to the music of the Catholic church, that is, to the Mass, he liberally notices that of the Protestant establishments, and mentions in favourable terms Dr. Boyce's collection; but being one of those who disapprove the use of fugue, and all such laboured compositions, in ecclesiastical music, he censures the style while he admits the genius and skill of the English composers for the church. Gerbert published in 1784 another work, of equal importance with the former, in two volumes, under the title of Scriptores Ecclesiastici de Musica Sacra Potissimum, &c., which is a collection of authors who have written on the subject of his favourite pursuit, from the third century to the invention of printing. These, in numbe upwards of forty, are arranged chronologically. The work is extremely rare, but M. Forkel has given a useful analysis of it in his History of Music. Gerbert died in 1792. (Schlichtegroll's Necrology, vol. ii.) criticism. Geometry and astronomy were Gerbert's favourite pursuits; there is or was extant a MS. treatise of his on sun-dials, and he also wrote on the astrolabe. He is said to have been acquainted with the Greek language. His letters, printed by Du Chesne, 1636, at the end of the second volume of his Historians of France,' throw some light on the ecclesiastical intrigues and political events of the time. GERBILLUS. [JERBOA.] GERFALCON. [FALCONIDE; FALCONRY.] GERMAIN, ST., a town in France in the department of Seine et Oise, distinguished from a multitude of other places of the same name by the epithet en Laye. It is on the left bank of the Seine, 14 or 15 miles from Paris on the road to Evreux and Caen. The town had its origin from a monastery founded by King Robert (who reigned A.D. 9961031), dedicated to St. Germain and St. Martin. There was a royal residence here from a very early period, but the present palace, the chief edifice in the town, was commenced by Francis I. and enlarged by Louis XIV. The town is of considerable extent, containing in 1831 a population of 10,671. It is agreeably situated on a height which coramands a beautiful prospect of the valley and the sinuous course of the Seine, with a distant view of St. Denis, Paris, and its environs. The streets are handsome and well laid out, and the houses lofty and well built: there are many antient mansions, once the residence of the lords of the court, before Louis XIV. forsook this place for Versailles. The château, or palace, is a heavy building, chiefly of brick, surrounded by wide and deep ditches; the apartments are handsome. The château was used under Louis XVIII. and Charles X. as a barrack for a company of the Gardes du Corps. The Château Neuf, built by Henri IV. for his mistress La Belle Gabrielle,' is now a heap of ruins. The forest or park of St. Germain, surrounded by walls and occupying more than 10,500 acres, is adorned by trees of immense size, and has numerous broad avenues. The royal family resort hither to hunt the deer and other game, of which there is a considerable quantity. A noble terrace, of more than a mile and a quarter in length and nearly 100 feet wide, extends from the palace along the skirts of the forest, and affords to the towns-people an agreeable promenade. In the forest are several small edifices erected at different periods by the kings of France. The town has a church of modern erection, a new corn-market, and a theatre. It is the residence of a Juge de Paix. The manufactures are of little account; they are of stockings and leather. A yearly fair is held for business; and one a few days afterwards for pleasure: the latter is held in the forest, and attracts a number of visitors from Paris and the surrounding villages. There are many schools; and in the neighbourhood is a subsidiary school for the education of 200 orphan daughters of the members of the Legion of Honour. There are a small public library and an hospital for the sick and aged. Henri II., Charles IX., and Louis XIV. were born at St. Germain; and Louis XIII. died there. James II. of England and his family found in exile an asylum there. James died at St. Germain in 1701, and his remains were discovered in 1826 in digging the foundations of the new church. GERMAN'S, ST. [CORNWALL.] 6 commander to revoke the order, to punish the guilty, and to march against the enemy. They then began to inflict summary execution on the ringleaders of the mutiny, without waiting for the order of their commander. A similar scene took place in the camp of two other legions, which were stationed in another part of the country under the orders of Cæcina. Availing himself of the present state of excitement of the soldiers, Germanicus crossed the Rhine, attacked the Marsi, the Bructeri, and other German tribes, and routed them with great slaughter. In the following year, taking advantage of a quarrel between Arminius, the conqueror of Varus, and Segestes, another German chief, he attacked Arminius, and penetrated to the spot where the legions of Varus had been cut to pieces. The bones of the Roman soldiers, which still lay on the ground, were collected and buried by their countrymen. Arminius however fought bravely, and was near defeating a division commanded by Cacina. In the following campaign Germanicus embarked his troops on board a flotilla which he had constructed or collected for the purpose, and sailing from the island of the Batavi, he landed at the mouth of the Ems, from whence he marched towards the Visurgis, or Weser, where he found Arminius encamped. Two obsti nate battles were fought in succession, in both of which Arminius was defeated. Germanicus raised a trophy with this inscription: The army of Tiberius Cæsar, having conquered the nations between the Rhine and the Elbe, con secrates this monument to Mars, Jupiter, and Augustus.' After this victory he sent part of his legions by land to their winter-quarters on the Rhine, and with the rest embarked on the Ems, to return by sea; but being surprised by a dreadful storm, his vessels were dispersed, many were lost, and he himself was cast on the coast of the Chauci, whence he returned to the Rhine and placed the legions in winterquarters. Meantime Tiberius wrote repeatedly to his nephew, that he had earned enough of glory in Germany, and that he ought to return to Rome to enjoy the triumph which he had merited. Germanicus asked for another year to complete the subjugation of Germany, but Tiberius, who felt jealous of the glory of his nephew and of his popularity with the troops, remained inflexible, and Germanicus was obliged to return to Rome, where he triumphed in the following year, A.D. 17. The year after, he was consul for the second time with Tiberius himself, and was sent to the East, where serious disturbances had broken out, with most extensive powers. But Tiberius took care to have a watch over him by placing in the government of Syria Cnæus Piso, a violent and ambitious man, who seems to have been well qualified for his mission, as he annoyed Germanicus in every possible way, and his wife Plancina seconded him in his purpose. The frank and open nature of Germanicus was not a match for the wily intrigues of his enemies. After making peace with Artabanus, king of the Parthians, and calming other disturbances in the East, Germanicus fell ill at Antioch, and after lingering some time he died, plainly expressing to his wife and friends around him his conviction that he was the victim of the treason of Piso and Plancina; whether he meant through poison, or through their 'annoyances, has been a subject of doubt. His wife Agrippina, with her son Caius and her other children, returned to Rome with the ashes of her husband. [AGRIPPINA THE ELDER.] GERMAN-BANATE, a considerable district of Southern Hungary, forming, with the Illyrian-Walachian district, the province called the Banate, or Hungarian Frontier.' It is the most westerly part of it, lies next the Danube in the south and west, and has the Hungarian counties of Torontal and Temesch for its northern and eastern boundaries. The area is about 1581 square miles; it has one town and sixty villages and hamlets; and its population, which, by the conscription lists, was 61,988 in 1799, and 85,635 in 1815, is now about 116,000, the majority of whom are of the Greek faith. The surface is a complete level, in the centre of which is the great sandy plain of Bieloberdo. It is watered by the Themes, Nera, &c., has extensive swamps, and produces much grain, as well as hemp, vegetables, wine, &c The woods cover an area of about 11,970 acres. Considerable numbers of horses, oxen, sheep, and swine, are reared. There is only one town in the Banate, Pancsova, at the confluence of the Themes and Danube, in 44° 49' N. lat., and 20° 38' E. long.: it is a fortified place and a free town, with extensive lands lying around it, which belong to the municipality. Its population was 6765 in 1806, and it now amounts to nearly 9000: it has two churches, a gymnasium, a mathematical and a normal school, several other schools of an inferior class, and about 950 houses. It is the headquarters of the Austrian German-Banate regiment, and has a brisk trade with Turkey. GERMAN OCEAN. [NORTH SEA.] GERMA'NICUS, CESAR, the eldest son of Drusus Nero Germanicus and of Antonia the younger, the nephew of Tiberius, and brother of Claudius, afterwards emperor, was born in the year 14 B.C. Augustus on adopting Tiberius made the latter adopt his nephew Germanicus. At the age of twenty Germanicus served with distinction in Dalmatia, and afterwards in Pannonia, and on his return obtained a triumph. He married Agrippina the elder, grand-daughter of Augustus, by whom he had nine children; among others Caius Caligula, and Agrippina the younger, mother of Nero. In A.D. 12 Germanicus was made consul, and soon after he was sent by Augustus to command the legions on the Rhine. On the news of the death of Augustus some of the legions on the lower Rhine mutinied, while Germanicus was absent collecting the revenue in Gaul; he hastened back to the camp, and found it a scene of tumult and confusion. The young soldiers demanded an increase of pay, the veterans their discharge. They had already driven the centurions out of the camp. Some offered their assistance to raise Germanicus to the supreme power, but he rejected their offers with horror, and left his judgment-seat, heedless of the clamours and threats of the mutineers. Having retired with a few friends to his tent, after some consultation on the danger to the empire, if the hostile Germans should take advantage of the confusion caused by this sedition of the troops, he determined upon exhibiting to the soldiers fictitious letters of Tiberius, which granted most of their demands, and the better to appease them he disbursed to them immediately a considerable sum by way of bounty. He found still greater difficulty in quelling a second mutiny, which broke out on the arrival of legates from the senate, who brought to Germanicus his promotion to the rank of Proconsul. The soldiers suspecting that they came with orders for their punishment, the camp became again a scene of confusion. Germanicus ordered his wife Agrippina, with her son Caius Caligula, attended by other officers' wives and children, to leave the camp, as being no longer a place of safety for them. This sight affected and mortified the soldiers, who begged their Germanicus was generally and deeply regretted. Like his father Drusus he was while living an object of hope to the Romans. He died A.D. 19, in the 34th year of his age. He is praised for his sincerity, his kind nature, his disinterestedness, and his love of information, which he exhibited in his travels in Greece and Egypt. (Tacitus, Annals, lib. i. ii.; Dion Cassius, lib. 57.) from 6° 20' to 20° 10' E. long. It is bounded on the west There is probably no tract of country in Europe of equal extent which has a less fertile soil than this plain. Even the steppes of Southern Russia to the north of the Black Sea have a better soil, but as they have not the advantage of abundant rains, which are enjoyed by the German plain, the latter is much better cultivated and more thickly inhabited than the Russian steppes. This plain is supposed to have been once covered by the sea. Its substratum is formed by limestone, chalk, gypsum, and sandstone, which are covered by loam, clay, and sand, to an average depth of 200 feet. If this country were situated under a tropical climate and deprived of the abundant rains and snow which annually descend upon it, the surface would resemble the Sahara or the great Indian plain. to six miles wide, where these rivers issue from the mountain tracts in which they originate; but farther down they widen to twenty or thirty miles and even more. Where the rivers approach the sea, the bottoms are united with the marshes which line the shores of the North Sea these marshes are not of great extent, being only five or six miles across on the average, but they do not yield in fertility to any tracts in Europe. Being below the level of the sea at high tides, it is necessary to protect them by dikes from its invasions. Nearly in the middle of the plain occurs another fertile tract, enclosed by two ridges of high hills, which issue from the mountain-tract farther south, on both sides of the parallel of 52° N. lat. The more northern of these ridges, called the Süntel, rises to the south of the town of Hanover, whence it runs westward, and south of Minden forms the Porta Westphalica, where it is broken through by the river Weser. To the west of this river it continues westward, and terminates about six miles from the river Ems. This ridge hardly reaches an elevation of 1000 feet above the sea. The southern ridge has the name of Egge east of Paderborn, and runs there south and north, but north-east of that town it turns west-north-west, and continues in that direction, approaching gradually the Süntel Hills, which however it does not join, as it terminates about three miles from the Ems, opposite Schüttorf, and about the same distance from the western extremity of the Süntel Hills. This ridge is known by the name of the Teutoburger Wald, or Osning. The valley between these two ridges is of considerable fertility; its eastern portion forms the principality of Lippe Detmold, and its western belongs to the Prussian province of Westphalia and the Hanoverian province of Osnabrück. That portion of the plain which is situated to the south of this valley contains a much larger portion of arable land than that which is north of it. The country between the Weser and Elbe does not differ in its general character from that west of the Weser in its northern districts, but towards the south it partakes more of the peculiar nature of the eastern portion of the plain, being mostly covered with forest trees of the pine kind. Such is the heath of Lüneburg, which occupies the whole space between that town and Hanover. That portion of the plain which lies east of the Elbe has a somewhat different character. Tracts covered with heath and moor occur here also, not contiguous, but separated from each other by great intervals of sandy surface. These sandy tracts however are not destitute of vegetation, nearly all of them being covered by various kinds of pine, which give the soil a greater degree of solidity. Still all lands of this description are only cultivated in a comparatively few and favoured places, and the crops are very scanty; but this portion of the plain contains a greater number of fertile tracts, which in some places are of considerable extent. The bed of the rivers is less depressed below the level of the plain, and the rich lands along their banks have a greater width. The marshes which are adjacent to such lands, and nearly on the same level with them, have been drained, and Though sterility is the general character of this plain, changed into meadows and fields. Along the shores of the still there is a remarkable difference between the countries Baltic no marshes occur, but the larger rivers, especially west and east of the Elbe river. On the west of that river the Vistula and Niemen, form deltas at their mouths, whose the plain is nearly destitute of trees. It presents a succes- alluvial soil is of great fertility, and can hardly be exhausted sion of tracts covered with heath and juniper bushes, and by successive crops. Besides these there are several fertile of moors which mostly consist of turf, a hundred feet deep tracts at some distance from the rivers, whose soil is a heavy and upwards. Each of these tracts occupies an extent of 12 loam of considerable fertility. Such lands are more common or 15 miles square, and the succession is sometimes in-between the Elbe and Oder than between the last-named terrupted by tracts entirely covered with sand and nearly without vegetation. A sandy tract of this description, which has been particularly described by the German geographers, is called the Huimling. It extends along the eastern banks of the river Ems, between the mouths of the rivers Hase and Leda, is at a considerable elevation above the surrounding country, and at its base is nearly 24 miles in circumference. All over this plain cultivable ground occurs only in the shape of oases which are at great distances from one another. The soil produces on an average only three or at the utmost four times its seed. To complete the picture of this plain, we shail add a description of those districts which are distinguished by fertility. The rivers run in depressions from 100 to 200 feet below the level of the plain. Along their banks there are bottoms with a fertile soil, which are covered in their natural state by forest trees, and when cultivated produce good crops. These bottoms vary in width, according to the volume of water in the rivers. Along the great rivers (Weser, Elbe), they are from three river and the Vistula, and still more so between this river and the Niemen. Through the northern part of this plain a higher tract may be traced, which in general runs west and east, but with two great bends. It begins on the west at Oldeslo in Holstein, whence it runs east-south-east nearly in a straight line to Schwedt on the Oder, where it is about seventy miles from the sea. East of that river it continues due east to Arendswalde, and then inclines to the north, gradually ap proaching the sea. Some distance west of Danzig it takes a short south-east course, and then again due east, terminating on the banks of the Niemen, near Grodno. This tract of high ground forms the watershed between a great number of small rivers which fall into the Baltic and many others, with a much longer course, which run off to the southward, and increase the waters of the Elbe, Oder, and Vistula. It is also remarkable for the immense number of small lakes which occur on its higher parts or near them. Some of these are lakes of considerable extent, as the lake |