creatures. The riverbed here can be left to grow unfettered. Near Kuppenheim the Murg enters the Rhine Plain, where it flows around the centre of Rastatt. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the course of the Murg in the Rhine Valley was canalised. Immediately before its present confluence on the Rhine near Steinmauern the river's canal cuts through the wetlands of Rastatt's Rhine river meadows. Its confluence was moved about 1.5 kilometres to the northwest in the course of work to straighten the Rhine by Johann Gottfried Tulla. Tributaries The Murg does not flow through the middle of its elongated catchment, but further to the east, so that more and larger tributaries join it from the west than from the east. Its left-hand tributaries included the Tonbach, Schönmünz, Raumünzach and Oos (north branch); its right-hand tributaries include the Forbach and Sasbach. Administrative divisions The old state border between the Kingdom of Württemberg and the Grand Duchy of Baden runs between Baiersbronn-Schönmünzach and Forbach-Kirschbaumwasen. The upper, formerly Württemberg part of the valley belongs today to the county of Freudenstadt. The lower, section, which from the 12th century was ruled by the Ebersteins and later went to Baden, is today part of the county of Rastatt. Towns and villages The following towns and villages lie along the Murg, from source to mouth: Dialects Several dialect regions meet one another in the Murg Valley. The area around the upper reaches, around Old Württemberg Baiersbronn, forms the westernmost tip of the Swabian dialect region. The old state border with Baden further downstream is identical with the dialect boundary with Upper Rhine Alemannic, which is strongly defined even today, and which dominates the lower part of the Murg valley. On the lower reaches of the Murg on the Rhine Plain is an Alemannic-Franconian transition dialect with numerous South Franconian dialect features. History The Murg historically was important for timber rafting. Wood was rafted first as far as Steinmauern, where it was dried and combined into bigger rafts. From Steinmauern the larger rafts were floated down to Mannheim and onward to the Netherlands. During the last phase of the Baden Revolution of 1849, the Murg formed the last-ditch defence line for the remanats of the revolutionary army. Driven by overwhelmingly numerous Prussian forces out of the capital Karlesruhe and much of Baden's territory, the revolutionaries staged a fighting withdrawal to the fortress city of