Rhine

Rhine (Ger. Rhein, Fr. Rhin, Dutch Rhijn, Lat. Rhenus), in every way one of the most important rivers of Europe. A large number of rivulets, issuing from glaciers, unite to form the young Rhine; but two are recognised as the principal sources—the Nearer and the Farther Rhine. The former emerges on the north-east slope of the Gott-hard knot (7690 feet above sea-level), and only a dozen miles from the cradle of the Rhone, on the other side of the same mountain-knot; the Farther Rhine has its origin on the flank of the Rheinwaldhorn (7270 feet), not far from the Pass of Bernardino. The two mountain-torrents meet at Reichenau, 6 miles SW. of Coire (Chur) in the Grisons canton, after they have descended, the Nearer Rhine 5767 feet in 28 miles in a north-east direction, the

Farther Rhine 5347 feet in 27 miles along a northerly course. At Coire the united stream strikes due north, and, after ploughing its way for 45 miles between Switzerland and Austrian Vorarlberg, enters its clearing basin, the Lake of Constance (1306 feet above the sea). It leaves this lake at its north-western extremity, a little below Constance, its water a deep transparent green, and flows generally westwards, in three or four wide curves, to Basel, separating Baden on the north from Switzerland on the south. Along this stretch the river (490 feet wide) plunges down the falls of Schaffhausen, nearly 70 feet in three leaps, and races over narrow rapids at three separate places where the terminations of the Jura Mountains intrude into the bed of the river; from the left it receives the waters of the Swiss Aar. Basel is 280 miles distant from the source of the Nearer Rhine following the windings of the channel, but only 85 miles as the crow flies.

At Basel (742 feet) the river, now 225 yards wide, wheels round to the north, and traversing an open shallow valley that separates Alsace and the Bavarian Palatinate from Baden, reaches Mainz (50° N. lat.) in Hesse-Darmstadt, north-north-east from Basel. This valley is fenced in by the Black Forest on the east and by the Vosges on the west; in it stand the cities of Müllhausen, Colmar, Strasburg (on the Ill, 2 miles from the Rhine), Gersheim, Spire, Ludwigshafen, and Worms, all on the Alsatian side, and Freiburg, Baden, Rastatt, Carlsruhe, Mannheim, Heidelberg, and Darmstadt on the opposite side of the river. Along this section the Rhine splits into many side arms that flow parallel to the main stream, and is studded with green islands. Navigation, however, which begins at Basel (although boats ply for short stretches on the upper waters above that point, even as high as Coire) is facilitated by artificial means, in that the current is made to flow in a carefully kept, straightened channel. Of the numerous affluents which add their waters to the volume of the Rhine along this section the largest are the Neckar and the Main, both coming from the right, and both navigable; the Ill, which falls into it from the left, is also navigable. A little below Mainz the Rhine (685 yards wide) is turned west by the Taunus range; but at Bingen it forces a passage through, and pursues a north-westerly direction across Rhenish Prussia, past Coblenz, Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Ruhrort, and Wesel as far as the Dutch frontier, which it reaches a little below Emmerich, and opposite Cleves; here it is 1085 yards wide and 36 feet above sea-level. The first half of this portion of the river from Bingen to Bonn is the Rhine of song and legend, the Rhine of romance, the Rhine of German patriotism. Its banks are clothed with vineyards that yield wine esteemed the world over (see below); the rugged and fantastic crags that hem in its channel are crowned by ruined castles; the treasure of the Nibelungs rests at the bottom of the river, but higher up, at Worms; the Bingerloch (see BINGEN) and the Mouse Tower of Bishop Hatto, the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, the rock of the siren Lorelei, the commanding statue of Germania (the trophy of German victory in 1870), and innumerable other features lend interest to this the middle course of 'Father Rhine,' as his German children call him. It still inspires them, as in 1870, when Max Schneckenburger's Wacht am Rhein (written in 1840; the music by K. Wilhelm, 1854) was sung by them with the greatest enthusiasm as they poured into France. There is the Rheinlied, too, of Nikolaus Becker, with Alfred de Musset's retort, Nous l'avons en, votre Rhin allemand, both of them written in 1841. Between Bingen and Bonn the steep rocky walls that fence in the river approach so closely together that in many places there is not room for the carriage-road and the railway to run alongside; they have to find a way through tunnels. Mainz (269 feet) is the head of steamboat navigation from Rotterdam. The Nahe enters the Rhine at Bingen, the Moselle at Coblenz; from the opposite (right) side the Lahn enters just above Coblenz. A few miles below this town gigantic rafts are formed out of smaller ones, floated down from the Black Forest and the woods towards Lorraine and the Palatinate, and are then steered by the numerous men who live on them right down to Dordrecht in Holland, where they are sold. Below Bonn the Rhine is joined by the Sieg, Wupper, Ruhr, and Lippe, all from the right.

At Bonn the river enters the plains, and almost immediately after passing the Netherlands frontier its delta begins. The principal arm, carrying two-thirds of the volume, flows under the name of the Waal, and later the Mermede, due west past Nimeguen until it reaches Dordrecht. East of the Biesbosch it picks up the Maas (Mense) from the left. At Dordrecht the river again divides, one branch, the old Maas, running out to sea; the other, the Noord, going up north-west to Rotterdam, just above which town it is joined by the Lek, another main arm of the deltaic complex, and below which town it once more unites with the Old Maas. The arm that strikes off northward at the point where the delta begins soon divides, sending one branch, the Yssel, due north to the Zuider Zee, which it reaches on the east side near Kampen; the other branch is the Lek, which runs into the Waal-Maas arm above Rotterdam. A thin stream called the 'Winding Rhine' leaves the Lek half-way between Arnheim and Rotterdam; but it again splits at Utrecht into two channels, of which the Old Rhine, a mere ditch, comparatively speaking, manages with the help of a canal and locks to struggle into the North Sea at Katwyk, a little to the north-west of Leyden, while the other channel, the Vecht, flows due north from Utrecht until it enters the Zuider Zee, a short distance from Amsterdam. For considerable distances in these delta regions the rivers are only kept from overflowing the country by artificial banks or dykes.

The area drained by the Rhine is estimated to be 75,773 sq. m., and its total length to be 760 miles, of which 550 in all are navigable. By means of the Ludwigs Canal it is connected with the Danube; the Rhone and Rhine Canal unites it with the Rhone, and so with the Mediterranean; another canal provides a waterway between it and the Marne, a tributary of the Seine; and yet a fifth unites it with the Zuider Zee at Amsterdam. The fisheries of the Rhine are of considerable importance; salmon, carp, pike, sturgeon, and lampreys—the fish of greatest value—are taken principally near St Goar, between Bingen and Coblenz. The waters are partly stocked from the fish-hatcheries of Hünningen in Upper Alsatia (see PISCICULTURE).

Commercially and historically the Rhine is one of the principal rivers of Europe. It was the Romans' strongest bulwark against the Tenthonian invaders. The Romans, and after them the Franks, encouraged commerce to travel up and down its waters, and kept its channel open. Under Charlemagne the ravages caused by the Teutons having broken through the Roman guard along the Rhine and inundated Gaul were rapidly obliterated, and the Rhine valley became the principal focus of civilisation in the early empire. Except between 1697 and 1871 the Rhine was always a purely German river; at the peace of Ryswick, Alsace-Lorraine was appropriated by France, and the Rhine became part of the dividing line between

France and Germany. In 1801 Napoleon incorporated the whole of the left bank with France; and in 1815 the arrangement in force before 1801 was restored; and after 1871 the Rhine became once more wholly German. From the days of the Roman supremacy down to the beginning of the 19th century navigation was always more or less hampered by the riparian sovereigns, during the greater part of the time a large number of dnodecimo princelings, who levied vexations dues on the shipping that sailed up and down past their towns and territories. From 1803 all the powers concerned, except Holland, abolished most of the shipping dues on their own vessels navigating the Rhine, and Holland followed suit in 1831; but it was not until 1st July 1869 that the river was declared an absolutely free waterway to the ships of all nations. The first steamboat churned up its waters in 1817; now some scores ply all the way between Rotterdam and Mainz, and others along other stretches. More than 18,000 vessels of about 2,000,000 tons burden pass the frontier town of Emmerich going up stream every year. There have been various schemes for utilising the mechanical power of the Rhine current by means of turbines and electromotors. For the political organisation (1805-13) taking its name from the Rhine, see CONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE.