The study analyses the notes written on the map of Bohemia and two Latin versions of the description of Bohemia in the first modern atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius. It examines the method of Ortelius’s work with cartographic material and his approach to the composition of the descriptive texts on the reverse sides, which he himself considered to be the main contribution of his atlas. The success of the atlas with its series of editions demonstrates the importance of the texts in their impact on the basic knowledge of regions and countries in early modern European society. The analysis of the two Latin versions of the description of Bohemia also proves Ortelius’s endeavor to update the information.
The map of Bohemia, published by Johann Criginger in 1568, was supplemented by Ortelius in his atlas with notes on some Czech towns and places, which he took from Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia. In the first Latin description of Bohemia, the author based his work primarily on Historia Bohemica by Annaeas Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), and in the second version, which appears in Theatrum Orbis Terrarum from the 1574 Latin edition, he takes the text from the recent Historiae Regni Boiemiae by Jan Dubravius. The annexes provide transcriptions of both of Ortelius’s versions of the characteristics of Bohemia.

The results of the first (since 1939) hydrochemical investigations of Gliwice Channel have been presented. The polluted K.lodnica River affects bad water quality of the canal. For example the concentrations of chlorides (Cl), sulfates (S04), sodium (Na), potassium (K), conductivity and dissolved substances quality of water is out of standards. In the case of BOD and COD the water quality is changed from out of classes to II class. pH and oxygen concentration are in I class. Although no salinity waters flow into the canal, the water quality get improved slightly only. The decrease of pollutants concentration is related to theirs dispersion. In the case of water quality the self-purification processes are of secondary importance.