Styria lies to the east of Carinthia and Carniola and is no whit less interesting. It is traversed by the range of the Carnic, here called the Styrian or Karawanken Alps. Of these, the highest peak is the Stou, 7346 feet, but higher still is the Hochgolling, 9392 feet, in the prolongation of the Tauern range. The whole country is mountainous, and in consequence it is, like so much else of the Empire, rich in minerals; its iron mines are well worked and produce a large quantity of ore annually. There are also numerous mineral springs, of iron, of alkali, and of brine. Gratz, which is the capital town, has a population of over 100,000. There is a university here, and the inhabitants are almost all Roman Catholic; about two-thirds of them are German. The industrial side of Styria is worked much better than most parts of the Dual Monarchy. There is a good manufacture of iron tools and agricultural implements. The country also produces linen, paper, shoes, glass, and many other things. It was at one time held by Hungary, but has generally shared the fate of the two adjacent provinces. Styria shared in the Reformation, but was re-Catholicised by the determined efforts of the Archduke Charles in the sixteenth century. He settled the Jesuits in Gratz and set up a Catholic printing-press there. “A university for Jesuit instruction was founded in 1586. The nobles were obliged under pain of disgrace and even punishment to send their children to this university, and no one was allowed to attend the heretical schools of Germany.” When Charles died his work was carried on by his successor Ferdinand, who “began by driving all the Protestant preachers from Gratz and other towns; he then took possession of their schools, burnt their books, and forced the members of the Reformed churches to sell their property and quit the country. The Capuchins were sent for to help the Jesuits to bring back the people to the right way, and liberty of conscience was stifled for long years to come” (_History of Austria-Hungary_, by Louis Leger). CHAPTER XII THE TYROL AND ITS HEROES It certainly would be no exaggeration to say that the best-known part of Austria, to other nations at all events, is the Tyrol. That strange, mountainous, beautiful corner of the empire is now as much a playground for the nations of Europe as Switzerland is. One of the first men to make a map of the Tyrol was Burghlechner in 1603, and, with the licence of the time, which allowed strange vagaries in the way of imagination, he drew it to resemble an eagle clutching with one of its claws the lion of Venice and with the other the native ibex. The resemblance, however, is not one that the practical Briton can trace, any more than he can see bears and human figures in the scattered constellations; to him the Tyrol, the Austrian part of it, is just a peninsula stretching out westward from the rest of the country and expanding at the two outermost corners.