SPREE  , a

river of Prussia, Germany, rising in the district of Upper Lusatia, in the kingdom of Saxony, close to the Bohemian frontier, and flowing nearly due north past Bautzen, Spremberg and Cottbus, dividing between the first two towns for a time into two arms . Below Cottbus the river splits into a network of channels, and swings round in a big curve to the west forming the peculiar marshy region (30 M. long and 3 to 6 m. wide) known as the Spreewald . Having returned to its predominant direction, it turns W.N.W., and passing Furstenwalde and Kopenick threads Berlin in several arms, and joins the Havel at Spandau . Its length is 227 M. of which 112 are navigable; the area of its drainage basin is 366o sq. m . It is connected with the Oder by the Friedrich Wilhelm or Mullrose Canal made in 1862–1868, which is 17 M. long, and by the Oder-Spree Canal, made in 1887–1888, and with the Havel by the Berlin-Spandau Navigation Canal, 51 m. long, and by the Teltow Canal completed in 1905 .