with Bonaparte, to a compatriot at Istria. The papers were betrayed by Demetrios Oikonomos Kozanites into the hands of the Austrian government, and Rhigas was arrested at Trieste and handed over with his accomplices to the Turkish authorities at Belgrade. Immediately on arrest he attempted suicide. His Turkish friend, Passvan-Oglou, sought to secure his escape, and the government apparently consented to release him on the payment of a ransom of about £6000; but meanwhile the Turkish pasha commanding at Belgrade had taken the law into his own hands. Rhigas's five companions were secretly drowned, but he himself offered so violent a resistance that he was shot by two Turkish soldiers. His last words are reported as being: “I have sown a rich seed; the hour is coming when my country will reap its glorious fruits.” Rhigas, writing in the popular dialect instead of in classical Greek, aroused the patriotic fervour of his contemporaries and his poems were a serious factor in the awakening of modern Greece.
See Rizos Néronlos, Histoire de la revolution grecque (Paris, 1829); I. C. Bolanachi, Hommes illustres de la Grèce moderne (Paris, 1875); and Mrs E. M. Edmonds, Rhigas Pheraios (London, 1890).
RHINE (Lat. Rhenus, Ger. Rhein, Fr. Rhin, Dutch Rhyn, or Rijn), the chief river of Germany and one of the most important in Europe. It is about 850 m. in length and drains an area of 75,000 sq. m. The distance in a direct line between its source in the Alps and its mouth in the German Ocean is 460 m. Its general course is north-north-west, but it makes numerous deflexions and at one point is found running in a diametrically opposite direction. The name Rhine, which is apparently of Celtic origin, is of uncertain etymology, the most favoured derivations being either from der Rinnende (the flowing), or from Rein (the clear), the latter being now the more generally accepted.
1. The Swiss Portion.—The Rhine rises in the mountains of the Swiss canton of the Grisons, and flows for 233 m. in Swiss territory, within which its drainage basin includes about 14,059 sq. m., and every canton save Geneva. The two main branches of the Rhine, the Hinter Rhine and the Vorder Rhine, unite at Reichenau, 6 m. S.W. of Coire. (1) The principal stream is considered to be that of the Hinter Rhine, which issues (7271 ft.) from the glaciers of the Rheinwaldhorn group, and then flows first N.E. through the Rheinwald valley, and next N. through the Schams valley, which communicates by the well-known gorge of the Via Mala with the Tomleschg valley at Thusis, whence the stream continues its N. course to Reichenau; total length 35½ m., total fall 3711 ft. It receives a number of mountain torrents during its course, the most important being that from the Avers glen, and the Albula, both on the right, which is itself formed by many mountain streams. (2) The Vorder Rhine rises in the small Toma lake (7691 ft.), S. of the Oberalp Pass, not far from the St. Gotthard Pass, and then flows N.E. past Disentis and Ilanz, which claims the honour of being the “first town on the Rhine,” to Reichenau; total length 42 m., total fall 3492½ ft. Its chief affluents are the stream dignified by the name of the Medels Rhine, that rises in the Cadlimo glen, W. of the Lukmanier Pass, and, after flowing through the Medels glen, joins the Vorder Rhine at Disentis, and the Glenner, flowing from the Lugnetz glen, both on the right. From Reichenau the united streams flow N.E. to Coire, the capital of the canton of the Grisons, and then turn towards the N., past Ragatz, the valley broadening out, and the river being joined on the right by the Landquart and the Ill, before it expands into the Lake of Constance. Extensive “corrections” of the river bed, especially the canal of Diepoldsau, have been carried out in the lower bit of this part of the valley, while from a little north of Ragatz the right bank belongs first to Liechtenstein and then to the Austrian province of the Vorarlberg. On issuing from the Lake of Constance at Constance, the Rhine flows nearly due west to Basel, where it leaves Swiss territory, the south bank during this portion of the river being entirely Swiss, save the town of Constance, but the north shore belongs to Baden, save in the case of the Swiss town of Stein-am-Rhein and the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen. The chief towns on its banks are Constance (S.), Schaffhausen (N.), Waldshut (N.), Laufenburg (S.), Sackingen (N.), Rheinfelden (S.), and Basel (both banks). About 1½ m. below Schaffhausen the river forms the famous Falls of the Rhine, or Falls of Schaffhausen (60 ft. high), while at Coblenz, opposite Waldshut, it receives its chief affluent, the Aar, recently swollen by the Reuss and the Limmat, and of greater volume than the river in which it loses its identity.
2. The German and Dutch Portion.—After Basel, when the Rhine turns to the north and enters Germany, its breadth is between 550 and 600 ft., while its surface now lies not more than 800 ft. above the sea, showing that the river has made a descent of 6900 ft. by the time it has traversed a third of its course. From Basel to Mainz the Rhine flows through a wide and shallow valley, bordered on the east and west by the parallel ranges of the Black Forest and the Vosges. Its banks are low and flat, and numerous islands occur. The tendency to divide into parallel branches has been curbed in the interests of navigation, and many windings have been cut off by leading the water into straight and regular channels. At Mannheim the river is nearly 1500 ft. in width, and at Mainz, where it is diverted to the west by the barrier of the Taunus, it is still wider. It follows the new direction for about 20 m., but at Bingen it again turns to the north and begins a completely new stage of its career, entering a narrow valley in which the enclosing rocky hills abut so closely on the river as often barely to leave room for the road and railway on either bank; during this portion of its course the speed of the current at a normal state of the water exceeds 6 m. an hour. This is the most beautiful part of the whole course of the river, abounding in ruined castles, romantic crags and sunny vineyards. At Coblenz the valley widens and the river is 1200 ft. broad, but the hills close in again at Andernach, and this ravine-like part of its course cannot be considered as ending till below the Siebengebirge (Seven Mountains), where the river once more expands to a width of 1300-1600 ft. Beyond Bonn and Cologne the banks are again flat and the valley wide, though the hills on the right bank do not completely disappear till the neighbourhood of Düsseldorf. Farther on the country traversed by the Rhine is perfectly level, and the current becomes more and more sluggish. On entering Holland, which it does below Emmerich, its course is again deflected to the west. Within Holland the banks are so low as to require at places to be protected by embankments against inundations. Almost immediately after entering Holland the stream divides into two arms, the larger of which, carrying off about two-thirds of the water, diverges to the west, is called the Waal, and soon unites with the Maas. The smaller branch to the right retains the name of Rhine and sends off another arm, called the Yssel, to the Zuider Zee. The Rhine now pursues a westerly course almost parallel with that of the Waal. At Wijk another bifurcation takes place, the broad Lek diverging on the left to join the Maas, while the “Kromme Rijn” to the right is comparatively insignificant. Beyond Utrecht, where it is again diminished by the divergence of the Vecht to the Zuider Zee, the river under the name of the “Oude Rijn,” or Old Rhine, degenerates into a sluggish and almost stagnant stream, which requires the artificial aid of a canal and of sluices in finding its way to the sea. In Roman times the Rhine at this part of its course seems to have been a full and flowing river, but by the 9th century it had lost itself in the sands of Katwijk, and it was not until the beginning of the 19th century that its way to the sea was re-opened. Though the name Rhine thus at last attaches to a very insignificant stream, the entire district between the Waal on one side and the Yssel on the other, the Insula Batavorum of Caesar, in reality belongs to the delta of the famous river.
Tributaries.—The Rhine is said to receive, directly or indirectly, the waters of upwards of 12,000 tributaries of all sizes. Leaving out of account the innumerable glacier streams that swell its volume above the Lake of Constance, the most important affluents to its upper course are the Wutach, the Alb and the Wiese, descending on the right from the Black Forest, and the Aar, draining several Swiss cantons on the left. In the upper Rhenish basin, between
