232 



GERMANY. 



flows nearly due north ; tlie Lech trends towards the east ; the Isar flows to the 

 north-east ; whilst the Inn, in a portion of its course, flows due east. In fact, the 

 sediment deposited along the northern foot of the Alps forms a sort of glacis, or 



Fig. 132. — The Danube and its Upper Affluents. 



£j<hard 



SCALE F ; 6.000 000 



^l'jbu-'/ôOuFeet 



mound, and the rivers which flow over it open out like the sticks of a fan. Other 

 causes have, however, contributed towards this easterly trend of the rivers, fore- 



most amongst which is the tend- 



Fig. 133. — Augsburg. 

 Scale 1 : 200,000. 



ency of all rivers of the northern 

 hemisphere to encroach upon 

 their right bank. 



The rivers of Bavaria are by 

 no means formidable on account 

 of their volume, bat their fre- 

 quent floods and the marshes 

 which line their banks render 

 them serious obstacles to loco- 

 motion ; hence their importance 

 as strategical lines. With the 

 exception of the Isar, which is 

 inhabited on both banks by men 

 of the same race, the other great 

 rivers of Upper Bavaria — the 

 Hier, Lech, and Inn — have suc- 

 cessively become ethnological 

 boundaries. Most of the villages, 

 instead of being built upon the 

 banks of the river, occupy the 

 watersheds, and the roads, in- 

 stead of running through the 

 valleys, conduct us over the heights which separate them. Sites possessing special 

 advantages have exceptionally caused towns to be built on the rivers themselves. 



I 2 Miles. 



