PRUSSIA, prfisli'n. A kingdom and the larg est State of the German Empire. By the hn perial Constitution of 1871 the King of Prussia hears the title of German Emperor. The Prus sian territory completely or nearly surrounds that of live of the smaller States of the Empire— the grand duchies of Mpeklenbtn•g-Stliwerin and I\ fecklenburg-Strelits. I he duchies of An halt and Brunswick. and Grand Duchy of Oldenburg; also the three free towns of Lillwrk. Hamburg. and Bremen. With these ex ceptions the whole of North Germany and its low plain are I qnbraved in the Kingdom of Prussia. A small detached portion of Prussia. Hohenzol lern, is in the extreme south of the Empire. Explosive of Hohenzollern, Prussia extends from latitude 7' to 55° 54' N.. and from longitude 5° 52' to 22° 54' E. It is bounded on the north by the North and Ilaltie seas and Denmark. on the east by Rnssia (mainly Poland), on the south by Austria-Hungary. Saxony. the Thurin gian States, and the South German States, and on the west by the North Sea. the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxmmgnrg. lVith an anti of 134, 54S square miles, it embraces more than three fifths of the territory of the German Empire. it also has three-fifths of the population of Ger many. The density of population is over 250 to the square mile.
Toma.HANIY. Prussia has a frontage of nearly 1100 miles on the North and Baltic seas. The tidal variations of level in the North Sea are not great, but northwest storms have wrought great destruction on the low, flat seaboard of Prussia, so that in the course of centuries a large area of coast has been destroyed by the washing away of the shores. The Frisian Islands, fronting this part of the Prussian roast, are the ruins of a former coast line, and large parts of the present coast are saved from destruction only by costly works of protection. _Much of the coast is bordered by
marshy land. which affords fine pasturage. The Baltic, still more shallow than the North Sea, also lacks important flood and ebb tides, and no marsh formations are found along this coast. There are fewer islands than along the North Sea, one, however, the island of Rfigen, being of considerable size. The coast has several deep in dentations, the most important of which are Kiel Bay, Lithe& Bay, Pomeranian Bay, and the Gulf of Danzig. Sand dune.: stretching along parts of the coasts have nearly cut off the sea, and the lagoons (HMIs) within are filled with fresh water from the rivers emptying into them, so that the Halls are only slightly brackish. Out side of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, Prussia has all the important seaports of Germany.
The great plain which comprises by far the larger part of Prussia is by no nwans that or level, though its elevations formed of the accu mulations of boulders and ground moraine of the Ice Age rarely exceed 600 feet in height. Communications in all directions meet with uo obstacles on this comparatively level surface, stretching in Prussia between the Ems and Rus sia and southward nearly to the southern boun dary of the kingdom. (See GERMANY.) In the south-centre (region of the Harz) and the southwest (lower Rhine Plateau) the surface rises and merges with the hilly and mountainous regions of the South German States; but in the southeast the great northern plain is continued in the low plain of the Oder and only the fringe of the kingdom covers the northern part of the Sudetic ranges.