The capital of Carniola is Laybach. This is a hand some town, containing a great number of elegant struc tures, and amongst these several public buildings. Some of its churches, especially in the interior, are in a far better taste than is usually found in Germany. The river of the same name runs through the town ; but, though navigable, is not turned to any very considerable account. Trieste is more a seat of trade. Indeed, this is what may be called the main rendezvous of the Aus trian marine. Here there is a harbour, at once secure and commodious, which is frequented by a great deal of shipping. The number of vessels that depart from, or come into this port annually, is reckoned to be from 5000 to 6000; and the value of the merchandise exported or imported is estimated at from fourteen to fifteen mil lions of florins. It is chiefly by way of this port that the trade between the different states of the empire and the Levant, or other maritime parts, is conducted, the ne cessary communication for that purpose with the inte rior being maintained, either by the public roads, which are here generally good, or by the navigable rivers. Trieste, as a town, contains a great number of well built houses of stone : the streets are wide, and paved with very large flag-stones. The thriving state of the place is evinced by the face of activity which every where appears, and by the rapidly increasing population.
In the duchy of Carniola, in general, the spirit of in dustry and exertion in departments of manufactures and commerce is by no means dormant ; and if the state of society, or the progress of improvement, seem hardly to be adequate to what might have been expected, from a consideration of the natural riches and advantages which this province enjoys, its situation in these respects is yet far from being wretched or contemptible. One great source of the industry of Carniola is furnished by its mines. There are here several considerable iron manufactories. There is one wire-drawing mill, three forges for steel, and six for nails; in which last there are made annually from 8000 to 10,000 quintals of nails, in value limn 150,000 to 200,000 florins. There arc in Carniola, besides, two great glass-works ; in one of which a sort of Tuscan vessels are made, resembling in their appearance delft or Dutch ware. There is here, also, a manufactory of pipes. Carniola has a woollen manufacture. A great deal of cloth is prepared at Lay bach, and woollen hosiery is manufactured in considera ble quantity at Weichselburgh, at Strachina, and at Newmarktl. A spinning-work has likewise been esta blished, a lace manufactory, and a manufactory or linen. The most esteemed linen, procured from this quarter, is made at Bischoflack, in the environs of Laybach, and at Dobronina. There are several bleaching fields here.
The number of looms ni the province is estimated at :too; and the value of all the cloth annually made in it heel' rated at 600,000 florins.
The exports From this pro% ince are chiefly iron, steel, mercury, %vines, olive-oil, olives, chesnuts, and Carious other fruits, horses, cattle, linen, 1.V0011C11 StItirS, cheese, leather, honey, ship-timber, with all sorts of little hocks in wood, such as boxes, dishes, spoons, Eke. One of the most material articles ()I' import is corn, of Ivhich the native soil does not in ordinary years raise enough to an swer to the consumption of the inhabiamts. This pro vince is also without the fossil salt or salt-springs, which, found in other situations, are reckoned among the trea sures of Austria. Whatever salt therelOre is required, in addition to the quantity of sea-salt manufactured in the province," must be obtained from the sovereign's magazines.
Some idea of the relative importance of this duchy may perhaps he formed, from a consideration of the amount of its contributions at different periods for the support of government. This province, according to Busching, advanced for that purpose in 1770, 2,089,952 1101'111S. In 1780, according to Sehlzezer, its contribution was 1,650,000 florins. It contributed in 1803, according to the manual of Frankfort, 1,300,000 florins; according to Ockhart, 2,100,000. That its mines, generally taken, are not of the most considerable order, may reasonably be inferred from the circumstance, that it is not rated as contributing any thing to the montanisticum, or the re venue accruing to the emperor from the produce of all the mines. Its wealth in this department has, however, been of not a little importance towards the enlargement of the public revenues. The quicksilver mines of Idria yield annually to the emperor nearly 1,000,000 of florins.
Carniola possesses a robust and hardy peasantry. With the common people of this country, it is usual to go barefooted in winter through the snow with open breasts, and to sleep on a hard bench without bed or bolster. The food of this order of people is very coarse and mean. In winter, when the snow lies deep on the ground, the mountaineers, in the manner of the Laplanders, bind either small baskets, or long thin narrow boards, to their feet, on which, with the help of a stout staff, they de scend with great velocity from the mountains. When the snow is frozen, they make use of a sort of skaits for the sante purpose.
In this duchy there occur numerous natural curiosi ties. The vast grottos with which Carniola so much abounds, arc such, that malting similar to them is found in Europe. The principal tract of the grottos is in what is called the Pear-tree Wood, \which is one of the most considerable forests in the empire, but marked through out by a face of the most inhospitable desolation. Sonic of these grottos, or subterrancous caverns, arc said to he upwards of four miles in length. They rise also, in sonic instances, one tier above ;pother; every several grotto extending in breadth and height from 12, perhaps t6 2.0 feet, and exhibiting in the interior a great variety of stalactites of singular form and appearance. The most noted of these grottos arc the Al-gdalcn grotto near Adelsbcrg. that of Lueg, that of St Ser% io near Trieste, the grotto of Cot male, and those of the lake of Zirknbz. Amongst these, the grotto of Corgnale is particuiariy striking, both in resp. ct of the magnificence and the variety of it, stalacta(-„ and the lenvi arid ina• siness or the columns on whit It the ,affitud roof tic, „,, to repose. Zirknitz is not more remarkable on a( count grottos in that quarter, than for oil er natural phe nomena of a very singular kind, by which it is distin guished. This place has indeed many attractions. The. mountains, the roc ks, the woods, the smiliog plains, the fertile fields, and the gill y es se. ; It( red here and their•, which, in vatious directions, bound this line she( e of water, or oiler theinselv es to the eye in striking e.ontrast or connection with it, or with one another, form a scene highly picturesque and The prospf ct is far ther enriched and a nimated, by the beautiful and v% ell cultivated islands which rise from the bosom of the lake, and by the restless activity ul several rivulets, which, iu different quarters, hasten to «invey to it the tribute of their streams. The usual egress of the waters this lake, is by two openings %%inch nature has formed for them through one of the adjoining- rocks. Hut besides these two ea% tics, by means of which the lake is pre vcnu.d from rising above a certain level, there are seve ral others in the bottom of it, (and this is %%hat has it most noted in these parts,) through the ( flirt of which it every now tl in dis, !Tea•s entirely. When this event is about to take place, the waters crowd in succes• sion about the different (Tunings, and in the vicinity of them respectively the bottom is after a time laid bare, till after the lapse of about 25 days no vestige of the lake any longer remains. The period when the water is about to depart is that when fishing is fie rniitted in the lake, and at those seasons accordingly, there is procured an abundant supply of large fishes, chiefly pikes. After the waters arc gone, a field is presented, in the channel that they had occupied, very proper for cultivation, which it is immediately begun to labour and to sow. An abun dant vegetation soon covers the place. Three months afterwards the peasants collect from it crops of hay and millet, and game is pursued in situations where so short a time before there had been no other living creature but fishes. There is no precise time for these depar tures of the lake. It has been known sometimes to dis appear and to return thrice in the course of a year, and some years it has not disappeared at all. Its return, however, uniformly takes place after a space of not more than four months. Then the water is seen fur a short time rising with vigour through the diffi rent openings, and, within 24 hours, the basin is completely filled as before its depollute. This singular phenomenon has naturally attracted a good deal of attention; and super stition, as usually happens, has busied itself in convert ing it into a source of alarm and terror. It may, hov. ever, without difficulty, be aecounted for t.pon natural principles. The Carniolian Alps in general, as that vast chain of mountains is called which traverses this coun try from Dalmatia to Carinthia, may in fact he consich red as one great mass of calcareous matter, which hol lowed into a great number of grottos and extensive ca vities, affords opportunity for the accumulation in parti •ular places of great quantities of snow or rain water. With reservoirs of this kind, there is every probability that the principal cavities in Cie bottom of the lake of Zirknitz communicate; whmrrre it is, that wfien the wa in these receptacles is from any cause co..si lera'ify lowered, the water of this h,ke fans down to fill up the vacuity ; but when, from other contiguous subterrane ous lakes, or in any way else, more water is brought in to them than they are capable of containing, then a quan tity of it is forced up through the cavities mentioned, and thus the lake of Zirknitz is replaced in its original con dition. In connection with these natural curiosities, there may be noticed here a remarkable work of art. T:.is is the road known by the name of the pass of Lobel, by which a communication is formed between this duchy and that of Carinthia, and which, in respect of the length that it has been carried over a very elevated tract of ground, is certainly not equalled by any thing to be found in Europe.