ALSACE AND GERMAN LOEEAINE. ' 



169 



The slope which the Vosges presents towards the Rhine is far bolder than the 

 western one, which sinks down gently or merges into the plateau of the Faucilles. 

 The broad vale of the Ilhine contrasts strikingly with the hills which bound it. 

 Standing within it, at an elevation of some 500 feet above the sea, we see unrolled 

 before us the entire chain of the Vosges, and are able to grasp at a glance the 

 wealth of Alsace : the meadows, corn-fields, and hop gardens of the plain, the vine- 

 yards of the foot-hills, the forests and pasture-lands of the more distant moorlands. 



For a distance of 50 miles, from the Belcheu, or Bdlon, of Alsace (4,(377 feet) 

 to the Don on, or Donner (3,313 feet), the Vosges form the boundary between 

 France and Germany. Farther north Germany holds both slopes of the mountains, 

 including the famous gap of Zabern (Saverne, 1,247 feet), which has from a remote 

 age formed the principal military and commercial gateway between the two 



Fig. 98. — The Gap of Zadern (Saverne). 

 Scale 1 : 115,000. 



5° E ot f il-. 



7°20E.ot G 



- 2 Miles. 



countries. A canal, joining the Rhine with the Marne, and the railway from 

 Strassburg to Paris, run through this gap, whilst a fine carriage road crosses the 

 heights to the north of it. The " Little " Vosges extend northward into the 

 Palatinate, where they are known as Hardt. Their average height does not 

 exceed 1,300 feet ; yet, owing to the tortuous valleys, they form a serious strategical 

 obstacle. Formerly, when the country was but thinly inhabited and rendered 

 insecure by lordly highwaymen, the ruins of whose castles crown every summit, 

 only a few roads ran across it, and they were little frequented. The road by the 

 Lauter, passing along the old boundary of Germany, then afltbrded the only means 

 of reaching the Rhine in the north of Alsace. 



The Vosges are famous throughout Europe on account of their lofty ti'ees, and 

 it is not without emotion that we roam through the fir woods of the Hohwald and 



