SILESIA (Schlesien), a province of Prussia, is situated between 49°40' and 52° 8' N. lat., 14° 25' and ]9° 15' E. long. It is bounded N.W. by Brandenburg; N.E. by Posen ; E. by Poland; S.E. by Austrian Galicia; S. by Austrian Silesia; and S.W. by Bohemia. The province is 210 miles in length from north-east to south-west, and from 70 to 80 miles in breadth from east to west. The area of the province is 15,695 square miles. The population in 1852 amounted to 3,173,171, of whom 34,373 were Jews, and the remainder Protestants and Catholics in nearly equal numbers. The river Oder, which becomes navigable soon after entering the Prussian boundary, divides the province in its whole length into two nearly equal parts, which are very different from each other. That on the left bank, which is called the German side, is hilly, but has a very fertile soil, which amply rewards the labour of the husbandman. That on the right bank, called the Polish side, consists chiefly of a sandy and not very fruitful soil. There are however some sandy tracts on the German side, and some rich and productive spots on the Polish side. The country is highest ou the south-eastern frontier, and declines more towards the north-western frontier, where it is the lowest.
Where the frontiers of Silesia and Bohemia meet, a mountain chain rises, which extends southward to the sources of the Breswa and the Ostrawitza, whore it joins the Carpathians, divides the basin of the Oder on the one side from those of the Elbe and Danube on the other, and forme the natural boundary between Silesia and Bohemia and Moravia. This chain, called by the general name of the Sudetio chain, is divided into different parts, bearing different names, as the 'serge birge, the Riceengebirge, the loftiest and wildest part of the whole chain, the Schneekoppe, which is 4950 feet above tho level of the sea, the Gists Mountains, &c. In the interior there are some ranges uncon nected with the great chain—the principal of which is the Zobtenge birge, 2318 feet above the level of the sea. On the right side of the Oder, from the part whore its cours s is to the northward, the high land disappears, and those immense plains beak' which characterise this part of Europe. The Oder, locally called the Ader, comes from Moravia, and receives the Elsa, the Klodnitz, the Sieber, and the Bartach, on the right side; the Oppa, the Neisse, the Ohlau, and the Katzbach, on the left. The Bober, a considerable stream, which carries
down the drainage of the northern slope of the Riesengebirge, traverses the north-eastern part of Silesia, passing Bunzlau and Sagan, below which town it forms for a short distance the boundary of Silesia and Prussian Saxony, and then entering Brandenburg, joins the Oder below Crossen. A small portion of the province west from Görlitz belongs to the basin of the Spree. There are few lakes, and those which are so called are rather large ponds. The largest are the Koschnitz, Moswitz, and Schlawer lakes. The last is however four miles in length, but nowhere above a mile in breadth. The air is tolerably mild, except in the mountainous tracts; but in the southern districts the temperature for obvious reasons is lower, and the winter longer and more severe.
Among the useful animals of the province are—horses, horned cattle, sheep, goats, swine, game, fieb, bees, and domestic poultry. Wolves are found on the Zobtengebirge, otters in the Bober, and sometimes beavers in the Oder. The vegetable products are—corn, pulse, potatoes, garden vegetables, fruit, flax, tobacco, hops, madder, woad, teazle, and timber. The minerals are copper, lead, cobalt, arsenic, iron, and zinc. This last metal is found in Silesia and in the adjoining territory of Cracow in far greater quantities than in any other country in Europe. Other mineral products are sulphur, marble, alum, lime, and, above all, coal, of which about two millions and a half tons are annually obtained. Though Silesia is on the whole one of the most fertile and best cultivated provinces of Prussia, yet it does not produce sufficient corn for the consumption of its dense population. The province is traversed by the Vienna-Berlin railway, which panes through Oppeln, Brieg, Brcelan, and Liegnitz, and from which a branch runs from Brieg to Neisse; another from Breslau to Schwcldnitz, Frieburg, and Woldeuburg; and a third from the Hansdorf station in the north of the province, and eastward to Glogen. At the Kohlfart station, 82 miles W.N.W. from Brealau, the Saxe-Silesian railway from Dresden joins the Vienna-Berlin line, having passed in a portion of the north-west of the province the town of Collar.