The most common species of wood is the alpine pine, which almost exclusively occupies the sides and elevated slopes of the mountains. 'This the natives call nadel Itolz (needle-wood), which constitutes a con siderable portion of their fuel, and of the materials of their bridges. Ash, oak, elm, larch-tree, and most of our common forest trees, grow luxuriantly, and afford a delightful variety to their woodland scenes.
However striking to a stranger, especially if he -goes from our part of the British island, the quantity of wood may be, which he sees in Austria, yet he will every where meet with grievous complaints of its decline, and the most dismal forebodings of the fatal consequences which must follow it. Certain it is, that the price of wood has risen nearly 80 per cent. during the last six years, even making allowances for the depreciation of the paper currency, and the great difference which now subsists between the real and the nominal value of the circulating medium of the country. The same danger from scarcity of fuel, -and of wood for other purposes, is apprehended all over the west of Europe ; and we every where hear the same alarming invectives against the improvi dence of present occupants, and the mismanagement -of their rulers.
The climate varies greatly from the mountainous frontiers of Stiria and Bohemia, to the lower borders of Hungary and the banks of the Danube. In the former, the cold is in winter intense and persevering; storms and rains frequent, violent, and destructive ; -the summer is usually short and precarious; and the hopes of the husbandman are often blasted by frosts and tempests in the autumnal months. The average -quantity of rain that falls at the towns of Gmunden -and Hallstadt in Upper Austria, which are encom passed by mountains, and lie on lakes which give -them their names, is 38-16 inches, while the quan tity which falls at Vienna rarely exceeds 28. The medium temperature of springs in the high country is 42°, that of springs on the Danube 41°-4-6°. In these mountainous regions, the winter sets in with considerable severity about the end of October; and the ground is for the most part covered with snow until the middle of March. Partial thaws, indeed, sometimes occur, but they are of short duration, and do more harm than good. Very little can be done in the fields before the latter end of March, when the regular thaw commences, and vegetation is re-esta blished in beauty and The transitions from cold to heat, and vice versa, are sometimes very rapid and injurious to the human constitution, as well as to vegetation and 'to animals; but upon the whole, this fine province Cannot be deemed unhealthy or unfa vourable to longevity. The most frequent instances
of advanced old age which we met with, occurred, not as in Norway and Scotland, among the higher regions of the country, but in the deep and sheltered vallies.'' Near the salt pans of the provinces, the race of men is slender, pale, emaciated, and feeble in body, as well as to all appearance weak in capacity and intellect. Whether this proceeds from the at mosphere which they constantly inhale being impreg nated with impure salts and charcoal, so as to affect their lungs too powerfully, or from the nature of their occupation, which requires their being almost continually wet from head to foot, or from whatso ever causes it may arise, is much disputed, but the fact is undeniable. The most common diseases in those parts of 'Austria are pulmonary complaints, typhus and intermitting fevers, colds, rheumatisms, and epidemical distempers brought from Italy and Turkey. Southerly and south-westerly winds are the strongest. These blow from the Stirian, Ca rinthian, and Tyrolian Alps, over a snowy region of several hundred miles in extent. Northerly wii.;:s are the pleasantest, easterly the most piercing and durable.
On the banks of the Danube, and in the lower country, however, the heat is.excessive in the months of July, August, and September ; Fahrenheit's ther ' mometer standing frequently in the shade at 95-98 degrees. On the 25th of August 1805, it was at 97', and at three in the morning of the 26th it sunk to 51°; so rapid even in the warm months is the tran sition from heat to cold in this country. Tempes tuous winds seldom annoy the lower districts, and the climate is as fawurable for animals, for grass, corn, wood, and even some species of wines, as any part of Europe in the same latitude. Lintz, the most wester le city of Austria on the Danube, is said to be 1000 feet above the level of the Black Sea; and Hainburg, near Presburg, the most easterly, is about 780 feet above the same level.
There were 14,561 marriages, 65,139 births, and 66,023 deaths. * The number of families was 360,555, which gives nearly 4 to each family. There were 3997 nobles, and 4480 clergymen. The cities amount ed to 51, towns to 333, villages to 10/728, and the houses to 249,614.
The population of the most considerable places was as follows, viz.