The Hartz. 105 



Art. XIV. — The Hartz. — Physical Geography, State of Industry, 

 fyc; by Thos. G. Clemson, Member of the Royal School of 

 Mines at Paris, he. 



Perhaps no country in the World has its boundaries more natu- 

 rally fixed than that mountainous district called the Hartz, (resine,*) 

 which lies between the valleys of the Elbe and Weser. 



Under the name of the Hartz is comprehended all that natural 

 mountainous district from the centre of which rises the Brocken, and 

 which group contains a variety of rich metallic deposits which have 

 been worked for ages, and still continue to be the objects of success- 

 ful explorations. The principal mines are those of iron, silver, 

 lead, copper, and manganese. 



This range of primitive and transition rocks rises from the centre 

 of the vast secondary plain, bounded on the south by the primitive 

 formations of Saxony, on the east by those of transition which ex- 

 tend to Dillenburg, and on the north by the vast slopes com- 

 posed of the alluvion of the Baltic, and the Atlantic. Its greatest 

 length is fourteen and a half leagues, and its breadth from Wernige- 

 rode to Illfeld is six leagues. The Hartz terminates with the 

 commencement of the secondary plains, having on the north the 

 villages of Goslar, Ocker, Neustadt, Esenburg, Blankenburg, &c. 

 and on the south Stolberg, Ellrich, and Osterode. 



The mountains forming this group are not celebrated for their 

 height, the Brocken being the most elevated, (three thousand five 

 hundred feet,) known as the site of the exploits of the imaginary 

 Faust, and justly celebrated for the magnificent, and extensive view 

 enjoyed from its summit extending on the north beyond the Elbe. 



Nothing can be more characteristic and melancholy, than the as- 

 pect of those sad dreary plains which occupy the middle elevation 

 of this range ; they are singularly contrasted with its beautiful and 

 picturesque valleys. That upon which Clausthal and Zellerfeld are 

 built may be taken as an example ; it is covered with a meagre swarth, 

 scarce sufficing the few cows that supply these places with milk ; for 

 the other provisions of life the inhabitants are forced to have recourse 



* From the resinous trees which there abound. 



XIX.— No. 1. 14 



