Fish of all sorts are abundant in the rivers and numerous lakes; seals are taken in the Baltic. The wooded districts abound in game of every kind; pheasants, partridges, cad wild-geese being often found in enormous quantities. Besides stags, fallow-deer, wild boars, foxes, otters, weasels, polecats, martens, badgers, hares, and rabbits, the lynx. bear, eagle, and beavers are occasionally met with.
Manufactures, Commerce. —The principal manufactures are linens, for which certain districts of Silesia, Prussian Saxony, and Brandenburg enjoy a European celebrity; while of late years, the cotton manufactories, worked by steam, have maintained a successful rivalry with the older linens, worked by hand-looms. Besides these, there are numerous manufactories of silk, wool, mixed cotton and linen fabrics; including tine shawls and carpets iu Brandenburg, stockings and ribbons in the Rhenish provinces, where, as well as in Westphalia and Hesse-Nassau, the flax, hemp, turd silk and cotton thread is mainly prepared for the manufacturers. These districts, moreover, stand foremost inn regard to the preparation and manufacture of iron, steel (the steel and gun works of Krupp, at Essen, being world-famous), and other metallic wares, paper, leather', soap, oil, cigars, and tobacco, and for the number of their distilleries and breweries; while Saxony and Silesia have the largest number of chicory, starch, beet-root, gunpowder, and glass works. Berlin and Elberfeld rank as the two most important centers of manufacture in the continent. The region of the Harz in Hanover is famous for its mining industries. In 1874 there were altogether in Prussia 2,525 mines, producing coal, lignite, and iron, zinc, lead, and copper ores, and employing 239,841 persons, the value of the produce being estimated at 143,200,842 dialers. In tire same year tire smelting-works and found ries amounted to 1074, employing 121,792 persons, the value of the produce being 194,798,375 dialers.
The commerce of _Prussia is materially facilitated by her central European position, and thenet-work of river and canal navigation, which makes her territories the connect ing medium between several of the great European states, and which, with 11,000 nn. of railway, 22,000 m. of public roads (all, or nearly all, formed since the time of Frederick the great), and a sea-line of 700 m. on the Baltic, and 200 on the German ocean, give her a free outlet to the rest of the world. The Prussian mercantile marine, in 1875, num bered 3,103 vessels, of 496,337 tons. The chief ports are Memel, Pintail, Konigsberg, Dantzic, Col berg, Swineuitinde, Stettin, Wolgast, Stralsund, Kiel, Flensborg, Altona, Harburg, Geestendinde, Leer, and Emden. The principal commercial towns arc Berlin,
Konigsberg, Breslau, Barmen, Elberfeld, Dantzie, Stettin, Cologne, Magdeburg, Aix-la Chapelle, and Frankfort-on-the-Main. Annual fairs are still held at Breslau, Magde burg, and Frankfort-on-the-Oder.
The money, measures, and weights of Prussia are those in use throughout tire Ger man empire. In accordance with the law of 1872, the mark is the unit of reckoning, and has gradually displaced dialers (q. v.) and silbergroschen. The Prussian or Berlin bank, founded in 1765, with numerous branches in the provinces, is the most important of those banks which possess the right of issuing notes.
Religion. etc.—The dominant religion is Protestantism, and since 1817 the Lutheran and Reformed churches have been united under the head of one common evangelical church. Everything connected with the external administration of church matters is under the control of the minister of public instruction and ecclesiastical affairs, lint every religious community manages its own internal concerns; the Protestant churches acting in con junction with consistories or hoards appointed by tire government, one of which exists in each province, under the direction of tire upper president, or provincial governor, and clerical superintendent.generals, who, in Posen and Pomerania, hear tire title of bishop, while the Roman Catholic church is directed by tire two archbishops of Posen and Guesen and Cologne, under whom stand the four bishoprics of Cohn. Minster, Pader born, and 'Peeves. The two episcopal sees of Breslau and Ermeland are directly under the jurisdiction of tire pope, while the district of Glatz, in Silesia, belongs to tire arch bishopric of Prague. anti Katscher, in Upper Silesia, to that of Olmiltz. The results of tire census of 1871, as regards tire numbers of the religious bodies, are as follows: the Protestants of ProssiA numbered 16,041,215; the Roman Catholics, 8,268,309; other Christian sects, 53,993; Jews, 325.565. This gives a percentage of 64.96 of the popula tion to Protestantism. and of 33.48 to Roman Catholicism, yet it is significant that the number of Roman Catholic clergy is nearly as great as that of the Protestant clergy. The higher Roman Catholic clergy are paid by tire state, the archbishop of Breslau receiviug £1700 a year, and the other bishops about £1135. The incomes of the parochial clergy of both sects arise mostly from endowments.