In the Tyrol, owing to tho great unevenness of the surface, the air is in continual motion, and a calm day is a rare occurrence. The southern winds are much feared on account of the effect that they produce on the health, especially in the southern valleys. They are most frequent towards the end of summer and in the beginning of autumn, and dissolve in a few hours an immense quantity of snow, and the volume of water which is thus conveyed to the rivers pro duces extensive inundations in some parts of the valleys. The most fertile lands are in the valleys of the Inn and of the Etsch ; the valley of the Etsch is the most fruitful.
Wheat, rye, barley, and oats are cultivated where the climate or stony soil is not unfavourable. In some parts buckwheat is grown to a great extent. Millet is also grown. Indian corn is the principal object of agriculture in the valleys on the border of Italy. Hops grow wild in the southern districts, where also tobacco is grown. Flax and hemp rev cultivated. Fruit-trees abound in the southern valleys, and large quantities of fruits are exported to Bavaria. Near Trent are plantations of fig-trees, and at Reveredo chestnuts are very common. In these parts are also plantations of olive-trees and mul berry-trees. A considerable quantity of silk is annually collected. On the northern shores of the Lego di Guards are plantations of oranges, whose fruits get quite ripe. Wine is made in large quan tities, and some sorts are very good, but they do not keep.
Cattle are of middling size and numerous : horses are leas abundant, and better for the draught than for the saddle. Sheep and goats are very numerous, but pigs are not much kept. There are chamois, bares, marmots, partridges, and some large birds of prey, especially eagles.
The minerals are gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, calamine, coal, and rock-salt, mines of which are worked near Hall, about eight miles below Innsbruck. In the southern districts there is a valu able kind of marble, resembling that of Carrara, which is much worked.
Manufactures and the inhabitants have a remark able talent for mechanical arts, the Tyrol is not a manufacturing country. The chief industrial products, which are meetly designed ' for home consumption, are flaxeularn, linen, knit-cape and stockings, baskets, straw-hate, and wooden ware. Tho transit trade is consider able, and it is much facilitated by the admirable new roads. Besides the export of the natural productions of the country, thousands of the inhabitanta annually migrate as pedlars or hawkers, with gloves, carpets, carvings in wood, and engravings. The have a remarkable
talent for the fine arts. Kneller and Angelica Kauffman were natives of the Tyrol. Education is generally diffused among the population. For higher education the crownland had a university at Innsbruck, 45 superior schools, 7 infant schools, and 3306 popular schools in 1847. Charitable institutions are numerous and well conducted.
Of the inhabitants about 600,000 are of German descent ; the remainder are Italians. They are all Roman Catholics.
The Tyrolese are honest, frank, with a very independent spirit and a strong attachment to their native land. They are especially dis tinguished by their deviated attachment to the house of Austria. They are fond of the chase and of manly games, and are a poetical and musical people. The German part of the population which occupies the northern parts of the Tyrol is much given to drinking, smoking, and fighting; and frays, often attended with the infliction of dangerous wounds, are more numerous in the Tyrol than in all the other provinces of the empire together. The inhabitants of Southern Tyrol have more of the Italian in their manners, language, and dress.
llistory.—In ancient times the Tyrol formed part of Rhmtia, and was subdued by the Romans in the reign of Augustus. After being ravaged by successive hordes of barbarians, it was divided into several petty lordships, all of which acknowledged the supremacy of the dukes of Bavaria. In the 12th century the Tyrolese became immediate subjects of the empire, and the petty lordships were absorbed under two heads : the two families being united by marriage, the country was governed by one sovereign, the last of whom dying in 1335, left one daughter, Margaret Maultasche, who made over her dominions to her cousins, the dukes of Austria. Austria, after having remained in permeation of it several centuries, was compelled to cede it by the peace of Freeburg, in 1805, to Eararia. The people, dissatisfied with the change of masters, rose in arms in 1809 under Andreas Hofer; but the great disasters of Austria left them without support, and the country was again occupied by the French and Bavarians, iu whose possession it remained till 1814, when, to the greatjoy of the people, the7 were restored to the dominion of Austria, and reinstated in all their ancient privileges.