The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume IX, No. 4 [‎218r] (106/172)

THE RIVER ODER.
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hydrographic conditions existing in regions liable to inundation : (A)
What are the causes of the floods of recent years; is the system of
regulation and canalization of the Prussian rivers responsible for the
increased danger arising from floods in those regions, and, if so, what
changes are to be recommended ? (B) What further steps can be taken
to diminish the risk to life and property in the future ? With a view
to answering these questions, the Commission set itself to collect and
arrange all the existing observations concerning the physical and
economical conditions of the different river-systems, and to fill up the
numerous deficiencies by new observations, so as to complete a general
survey of the hydrography of each system, and of the river interests
and rights which might be affected by any proposed scheme of regu
lation. This vast undertaking was, in the first place, restricted to
the basins of the Oder, the Elbe, and the Vistula, and the work now
published forms the report on the first-named. It consists of three
substantial volumes of text, a quarto volume of tables and statistics,
and an atlas of thirty-six plates. The first volume treats of the general
form of the Oder basin, its position, climatic relations, geology, etc.; the
second describes in detail the separate secondary basins ; and the third
is devoted to a careful discussion of the actual streams of the main river
and its chief tributaries.
The most important point to be borne in mind, in arriving at a clear
understanding of the geographical relations of the rivers of Northern
Germany, is the fact that the mountains and high ground forming the
water-partings approach nearest to the sea-coast towards the west, while
as we go eastwards they recede inland till the triangular North German
plain merges almost insensibly into the great Russian depression. The
southern border of the Oder basin touches on one side the division of
the Carpathians known as the Western Beskids, and on the other the
Sudetic mountains, whose north-eastern slope drains to the Oder through
out its whole length. Only the western part of the highland of Poland
drains into the Oder—the plateau of Poland and Upper Silesia. But
the peculiar distribution of the higher ground makes itself felt far into
the plain, for the Bober and the Lausitzer Neisse join the main stream not
far above the point where its volume is doubled by the Warthe and
Netze, and it is to the latter that the immense area of low-lying plain
in the Oder basin chiefly owes its existence; they traverse the belt
of depression which extends over into the Vistula basin as far as the
Rokitno marshes, and forms the true connecting link between the
great Russian plain, with its extreme continental climate, and the diver
sified surface of Western Europe, where a broken coast-line carries the
milder influences of the sea far inland. Hence the Oder occupies, as
it were, an intermediate position, the lower parts of its coxirse being
subject to conditions similar to those characteristic of Western Europe,
though to a modified degree, while the upper basin is in a continental