and Writings of Baron Leopold von Buck, 229 



Quitting the Hartz from the south side, we see rising, at the 

 distance of three or four German miles, the northern edge of 

 the extensive table-land of Eichsfeld and of Middle Thuringia, 

 having an average elevation of from 1000 to 1200 feet. It 

 extends in a direction exactly parallel to that of the Hartz ; 

 and, in the broad longitudinal valley between the two, there 

 rises the Kyffhauser chain of hills to a height of 1400 feet, 

 which likewise runs from NW". to SE. 



Similar features present themselves on the north side of the 

 Hartz, and where, at the edge of the alluvial plain, the eleva- 

 tion of the ranges of hills is too inconsiderable to admit of the 

 prevailing longitudinal direction being made distinctly appa- 

 rent, it is only requisite to delineate with colours on the map 

 the distribution of the formations, in order to perceive in a 

 marked manner, that each rock occurs in the line of the gene- 

 ral parallel direction. 



This law of the NW. and SE. direction, is further exempli- 

 fied towards the west, in a remarkable manner, in all the in- 

 numerable ranges of hills of Westphalia on the left bank of 

 the Weser, and it terminates there with the steep chain of the 

 TeutoburgerWaldjWhich, in all its subordinate parts, extends in 

 a marked way in the same direction. The same law is percep- 

 tible in the alluvial plain to the north, in the course of the prin- 

 cipal valleys of the Elbe, the Weser, and the Aller, which have 

 all a predominating dkection from SE. to NW. ; nay, it is exhi- 

 bited even in Sweden, for in South Schonen and in Bornholm, 

 all the ranges of hills, consisting of granite, gneiss, and secondary 

 rocks, have the same direction as that of the ranges of North 

 Germany. To the east, the same direction occurs in the hills 

 on both sides of the Elbe near Dresden ; also very distinctly 

 throughout the whole of Silesia in the principal chain of the 

 Sudeten^ in the porphyry ranges of the coal-formation, in the 

 limestone-chains of Upper Silesia, and in all the ranges which 

 lie between, until at length it terminates completely at the 

 Carpathians, which, as already remarked, derive their line of 

 direction from that of the northern branch of the Alps after 

 the bifurcation of that chain in Styria. 



Thus then, this series of ranges, which run from NW. to 

 SE., form a separate and sharply-bounded mass, whose pccu- 



