162 



GEEMANT. 



the one tributary to the Danube, the other to the Rhine — are separated only by a 

 flat level, presenting no difficulty to the cutting of a canal. This plain thus forms 

 g, reffion of transition between the basins of the Rhine and the Danube. 



The rivers of Northern Germany present a remarkable parallelism in their 

 course. The Weser, the Elbe, the Oder, and the Vistula flow in the same 

 direction as the Rhine below Mayence. The analogy presented by some of the 

 curves described by these rivers is truly striking, and clearly points to a 

 great uniformity in the geological agencies. But not only is the course of these 

 rivers a parallel one now, it appears to have been so in a remote geological age. 

 There was a time when the Elbe, below Magdeburg, continued its normal course 

 towards the north-west, and found its way through the Aller, now a tributary of 



Fig. 96. — Eain Map of Germany. 

 According to Putzg-er. 



Annual Rainfall In Inches 



m 



the Weser, into the sea. The Oder, instead of sweeping round to the north on 

 reaching Frankfort, continued towards the north-west, and joining the Elbe, was 

 tributary to the North Sea. At that time it must have flowed along what is now 

 the channel of the Spree, a river likened by a modern writer to " a dwarf concealed 

 in the armour of a giant." The Vistula, M'hich now discharges into the Frische 

 Hafi*, turned to the west, and, by w\ay of the swampy valley now occupied by the 

 AVarte and the Netze, it reached the Oder. The Memel (Niémen), which now 

 enters the Kurlsche Haâ", at that time flowed along the valley of the Pregel into 

 the Frische Hafl". These changes in the course of the rivers prove that the plain of 

 Northern Germany must have been upheaved in its western part, causing the 

 rivers to swerve round to the east. And, indeed, the marks of a subsidence of the 



