or ALPAXARES, mountains of Spain, in the province of Granada, on the coast of the Mediterranean sea. They are about 17 leagues in length and 11 in breadth, reaching from the city of Velez to Almeria. They are inhabited by Moors, who are the remains of the dispersion and ruin of their empire. They embraced the Christian religion; but preserve their own manner of living, and their language, though much corrupted. Here is a rivulet between Pitros Alsace on the side of Switzerland are less high; and furnished with all sorts of wood, as well for fuel as building. The country itself is diversified with rising hills and fertile vales, besides large forests; but that between the rivers Ill, Hart, and the Rhine, as far as Straßburg, is inferior to the rest, on account of the frequent overflowing of the Rhine. In High Alsace there are mines of silver, copper, and lead. They however work none but those of Giromany, from which are annually drawn 1600 marks of silver, each mark being eight ounces; and 24,000 pounds of copper; but the expense of working them is equal almost to the profit. There are iron works in several parts of Alsace, and particularly at Bedford. There is a mineral spring at Sallbach, near Munster, in High Alsace; which is in great reputation for the palsy, weaknesses of the nerves, and the gravel.—The original inhabitants of Alsace are honest and good-natured, but wedded to their own manners and customs. The fruitfulness of their country renders them indolent and inactive; for the Swits make their hay and reap their corn, as well as manage the vintage of High Alsace, which feeds a great deal of money out of the province. The common language is the German; but the better sort of people in the towns speak French; and, even in the country, they speak French well enough to be understood.

The number of inhabitants was formerly computed at about half a million, who are mostly Lutherans and Roman Catholics. By the late division of France this province forms two departments, viz. Thofo of the Upper and Lower Rhine; the capital of the former being Colmar, and that of the latter Straßburg; but formerly it was divided into Upper and Lower Alsace, the former contained 32 large and small towns, and the latter 39, and in both there are upwards of 1000 market towns and villages. The Rauraci, Sequani, and Medioatrici, were the ancient inhabitants of this province. Under the Merovingian kings its name first occurs in the history of France, and it most probably is derived from the river Ill or Ill, the inhabitants on the borders of which were called Elsaffon, from whom the country itself was afterwards denominated Elsa, in Latin Ellafatia, Alsatia, and Altatia. The Romans wrested it from the Celts; and after the famous battle of Tolbiac, gained by Clovis in 496, it passed into the possession of the Franks. It was incorporated at a future period with the kingdom of Austrasia; and, in 1752, it was subjected, like the rest of the monarchy, to the laws of Pepin and his successors. Lotharius, the eldest son of Lewis Debonnaire, at the decease of his father in 840, obtained it, and united it to that part of the empire of the Franks which fell to him, and was generally known by the name of Lotharingia, or Lorraine. Afterwards it fell to his youngest son Lotharius by inheritance, and after him, in 866, it became a province of Germany, and was governed by dukes.

About a century before the title of duke was abolished, the provincial counts who governed under them in Alsace, assumed the title of Landgraves, and the countries over which they presided, obtained the name of Landgravates, the one superior and the other inferior. The best part of the inferior was conveyed to the bishops of Straßburg in 1375, who assumed the title title of Landgrave of Alsace. In after times, the government was given by the emperors to several families, until at last Ferdinand I. bestowed it upon the German line of his own family; and consequently it remained in the house of Austria. The property of the town of Brissac, the landgraviate of the Upper and Lower Alsace, Sundgau, and the districts of the ten united imperial cities in Alsace, with the whole sovereignty belonging to them, was for ever ceded by the emperor to the crown of France, at the peace of Munster in 1648. The perpetual sovereignty of the city of Strasbourg, together with all its dependencies on the left of the Rhine, were ceded to France by the peace of Ryswick in 1697.