210 Proceeditigs of the Boyal Physical Society. 



across the chain, the results of which may help to throw 

 light on its geological history. 



II. TOPOGRAPHY OF THE HAEZ. 



The Harz ^ is the highest mountain range in North Ger- 

 many. It is situated between the Weser and the Elbe, about 

 125 miles south of Hamburg, and extends from N. lat. 

 51° 30J' to 51° 57J'. It rudely resembles the segment 

 of a circle, whose chord extends for a distance of about 

 56 miles in an E.S. and W.N.W. direction, thus follow- 

 ing the general trend of the adjacent ranges. This peculiar 

 configuration is entirely due to the geological structure of 

 the ground, as a glance at the accompanying sketch-map will 

 show. The maximum breadth of the Harz is about 20 

 miles (British),^ and the area 786 square miles, of which 457 

 belong to Prussia, 286 to Brunswick, and 43 to Anhalt.^ 



Like the Alps, Pyrenees, and Himalayas, the Harz is, as 

 we shall afterwards see, a mountain system of elevation, and 

 not a tableland of denudation like Norway or our own 

 Highlands. It consists of a central mass — the Brocken, 

 3746 feet (1142 m.)^ high — with several surrounding heights 

 of lesser magnitude, which in the western division, drained 

 by the Weser, form the plateau of the Upper Harz (2100 

 feet) ; and in the eastern, drained by tributaries of the Elbe, 

 the featureless uplands of the Lower Harz, whose average 

 height is about 1600 feet. Along the northern boundary line, 

 which has been compared to the chord of the arc, the 

 mountains rise abruptly from the rolling plain of Secondary 

 and Tertiary formations, which, at the foot of the Harz, has 

 a height of 700 or 800 feet. The southern and western 

 boundaries are also weU marked, but the eastern part of the 

 Lower Harz, in the neighbourhood of Mansfeld, slopes away, 

 and almost imperceptibly loses itself in the adjacent 

 country. 



The principal towns on the Upper Harz are Clausthal and 



^ Spelt also Hartz (from Hart = forest land), Sylva hercynia of the Romans, 

 2 1 kilometer = 0-62 British statute miles; 1 British mile =: 1-61 kilo ; 

 l meter=3-2809 ft. 

 2Encyc. Brit., 9th edit. 



