COXe’s TRAVELS IN DENMARK.
347
now paffes through this town will be conveyed along the canal, and down the Eyder toftonningen, and thence by fea and up the Elbe to Hamburgh. To counteract thefe ef-fects, profeffor Buefch has formed a plan to render the Steiknitz navigable for veffelsof burden as far as Lauenburgh. Should this projeCt be carried into execution, the ad-vantages arifing to the duchy of Lauenburgh, as well as to the city of Lubec, are tooevident to require an explanation.
The houfes of Lubec are built in an ancient ftyle of architecture, the doors beingfo large as to admit carriages into the hall, which frequently ferves for a coach-houfe.The walls of many houfes bear the date of the fifteenth century ; and doubtlefs, at thatperiod, the town was efteemed extremely beautiful.
1 he quay of Lubec is on the river Trave , which falls into the fea at the difiance offourteen miles, and admits veffels from one hundred and fifty to two hundred tons bur-den, and fometimes, but rarely, three hundred. I obferved about one hundred and'twenty merchant-fhips deftined to Ruffia, Sweden, and Denmark . The trade is chieflya trade of commiflion, drawing from Ruflia, Sweden, and Denmark , their raw commo-dities^ and fupplying them with wines, filks, cloth, and fteel ware.
Being unwilling to quit the territory of Lubec without vifiting Travemunde , we fe6off at five in the afternoon, and at feven reached Travemunde , diftant from Lubecabout nine miles. We found a clean and comfortable inn, good accommodations, anda civil landlord, who fpoke Englilh.
Travemunde, or the mouth of the Trave, is the port where the veffels trading to andfrom Lubec take their ftation. We hired a boat, and rowed round the port to theroad ; the port is able to contain fixty veffels, and fufficiently deep to admit thofe of twohundred tons burden, the fame as afcend the Trave to Lubec. Men of war ride at an-chor in the road. Our landlord procured from the pilot a lift of the merchant-fhipswhich took their departure from Travemunde in the following years:—
In 1778, nine hundred and forty-one fhips; in 1779, nine hundred and fixteen ; in1780, eight hundred and three; in 178 i, nine hundred and thirty-five ; in 1782, eighthundred and fifty-eight; in 1783, nine hundred and fifty-one. Of thefe he conjec-tured that one hundred and fifty belonged to Lubec, three hundred were Danifb, twohundred and fifty Swedifh, one hundred Pruflian, twenty Danifli, and ten Englifn.Iravetnunde is defended (if it can be called defence) by afinall fortrefs mounting fortyguns, and containing a garrifon of fifty men.
, paffed through Ratzeburgh, a fmall fortified town, prettily fituated on an iflandtn the midft of a lake thirty miles in circumference ; the banks abrupt, and pleafantlyfeathered with wood. The town partly belongs to the duchy of Mecklenburgh Strelitz,^nd partly to that of Saxe Lauenburgh. The buildings are of brick; aimoft everyuouie is fhaded with a tree, which forms a fingular and agreeable appearance.
From the lake of Ratzeburgh iffues the river Wakenitz, which joins the Trave near-Lubec, and thus facilitates the water-communication between Lubec and thefe parts,,he duchy of Saxe Lauenburgh belongs to the King of England, as EleCtor of Hanover..
i-he road winds at a fmall diftance from the lake of Ratzeburgh, commanding diver-uhed views of wood, water, and fields of corn and pafture.
Near Moelien is the navigation of the Steiknitz, which unites the Elbe and the Trave ,inis water-communication is formed by the two fmall rivulets, the Steiknitz and the-•uevenau, the' former falls into the, Trave, and the latter into the Elbe at Lauenburghle y were united by a canal, cut by order of the government of Lubec, in the fourteenthcentury, fuppofed to be the firft canal which had double fiuice-gates. The average-uepth of water being only three feet and a half, no heavy-laden veffels can pafs.. The
y y 2, walenxieo.