Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the
Political History of the United States POLAND. I. Historical.
Poland is a vast plain, the centre of which is at Warsaw, on the
Vistula, and which forms the northwestern region of a plateau
two-thirds larger, bounded by the Baltic sea, the Oder, the
Carpathian mountains, the Black Sea, the Borysthenes and the
Dwina. The boundaries of the state of Poland have changed, in a
thousand years, from the belt formed by the tributary rivers of
the Vistula to the circumference of the whole plain. But the
country occupied by the Polish nation has never extended beyond
the Carpathian mountains at the south and east. No mountains
traverse Poland, only sandy hills. In the east there are
marshes; the centre is covered with forests. The soil contains
mineral wealth, copper, silver, and the largest mines of rock
salt in Europe. The climate is cold in the north, and temperate
in the south; the soil is everywhere fertile, but nothing but
wheat is produced. —The Polish p