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in exchange for the counties of Oldenburgh and Delmenhorft, which fhe gave to thePrince Biffiop of Lubec. This exchange was favourable to Denmark , as the King nowpoffeffes the whole duchy of Holftein; and the intended jun&ion of the Baltic and theNorth Sea will be formed entirely through the Danifh territories.

Kiel poffeffes an univerfity for the German fubjects of Denmark , founded in 1650 byC.hriftian Albert, Duke of Holftein-Gottorp, and confiderably enlarged by the prefentKing; it contains twenty-four profelfors, and about three hundred ftudents. The townftands on a fmall peninfula in a bay of the Baltic, and has a very commodious harbourfor large flips. It is already one of the moft commercial places of Holftein; and thetrade will be {till further augmented when the inland navigation acrofs the peninfula isfinifhed.

This inland navigation, for the junction of the two feas, is formed acrofs the duchyof Holftein, by the canal of Kiel and the river Eyder, which pafles by Rendfburgh, andfalls into the German ocean at Tonningen.

The canal begins about three miles north of Kiel , at the mouth of the rivulet Lewen-fawe, which heretofore feparated Holftein from Slefwic, and will form a new boundarybetween thofe two duchies. The diftance from its beginning to the laft fluice at Rendf-burgh is twenty-feven Englifti miles ; but as the Eyder is navigable about fix miles andthree quarters above Rendfburgh, and only requires to be deepened in dome places, thecut neceffary for the completion of the communication between the two feas is onlytwenty miles and a half.

The canal was begun in July 1777.; and in June 1785, when I laft examined it, wasalmoft finifhed. The work was performed by contract; one thoufand and twenty-fourcubic feet * of earth were taken out for eight fhillings; and the whole expence^as to amount to about 8oo,oool. Between the Flemhuder lake and the rivulet La .v ens is the higheft point, on each fide whereof the waters take different courfes to theBaltic and German Ocean; in this part the ground muft be excavated to the depth offifty feet. The perpendicular fall towards the Baltic is twenty-five feet fix inches; thattowards the ocean twenty-three ; and the veffels will be raifed or let down by means offix fluices; Holtenau, Knorp, Suckdorf, Shinkel , Niederholten, and Rendfburgh.The breadth of the cut is one hundred feet at top, and fifty-four at bottom; the fluicesare twenty-feven feet in breadth, and one hundred in length ; the loweft depth of waterten feet. The canal will be furniftied with water as far as Steinwarp from the Eyder,and the lakes Flemhuder and Wefter, from thence to Renfburgh by the Wetter lake,from which iffues a rivulet that joins the Eyder. Merchantmen of about one hundredand twenty tons burden will be able to navigate this canal.

The utility of this important undertaking will be evident from a mere infpe&ion of thetttap of Denmark . At prefent even the fmalleft veffels, trading from any part of thetHnilh dominions in the Baltic to the Northern Sea , muft make a circuit round thefxtremity of Jutland , and are liable to be detained by contrary winds. This navigationis fo tedious, that goods {hipped at Copenhagen for Hamburgh are not unufually fent byfea only to Lubec, and from thence by land.

The objefl; of thofe who planned this canal was no lefs than to draw by Kiel into theBaltic the commerce of Bremen, Hanover, and Weftphalia, which is now carried down.theVefer, and by Gluckftadt upon the Elbe to Hamburgh and Lubec, and to facilitatethe tranfport of merchandize from Holland and the north fea to the ports of the Baltic.But the principal impediment to the fuccefs of this canal feems to arife from the difficult

* The foot ufed in this chapter is to the Englifhas 21 to 22.

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VOL, VI,

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