GENERAL ASPECTS. 



159 



elevation than the valleys of Central Germany, and the rivers which drain these 

 latter take their course towards the great plain of the north. The gradual 

 decrease in height, on going north, almost compensates for differences of latitude, 

 and the temperature is thus pretty much the same throughout the country. An 

 isothermal chart hardly exhibits this feature in a satisfactory manner, for the 

 isothermal lines do not represent the real temperature observed, but the tempera- 

 ture supposed to prevail at the sea-level. In reality the temperature of places 

 so far apart as are Ratisbon and Hamburg have very nearly the same mean annual 

 temperature of 48*^ Fahr. There are, of course, many local differences, depending 

 upon elevation above and distance from the sea, and the rainfall is greater in 

 the mountainous districts than in the vast northern plain ; but in its main 



Fig. 93. — Hypsogbaphical IMap of Germany. 

 According to Leipoldt. Scale 1 : 12,000,000. 



5- K . of Parts 



DiUiU) the. SnaLi^osT U-J-JS 



Heights in Feet 



a£S-5S« 9S4-ie4ii imo-'^TM (Jivr-MWl) 



—..^— 100 Miles. 



features the climate throughout is the same. The valley of the Rhine offers a 

 remarkable proof of this, for although that river, between Basel and Emmerich, 

 has a course of nearly 200 miles, the climate throughout is pretty much 

 the same, notwithstanding the great differences of latitude. This similarity of 

 climate has no doubt had its share in assimilating the manners, customs, and 

 modes of thought of North and South Germans. Indeed, the difference of climate 

 is greater between west and east than between north and south. In the east 

 the winters are colder, the rains less abundant, and we become sensible that we 

 are approaching Russia. 



Geographically Germany occupies a portion of the northern slope of the Alps, 

 and has no well-defined boundaries towards the east or west. Geologically, too, 



