BAVAEIA. 



235 



contingent to this flotilla, which at Donauworth is reinforced by steamers. 

 Nine- tenths of the barges only descend the Danul)e once, for on reaching Vienna 

 they are broken up, to be used as fuel or timber. 



In its course through Bavaria the Danube makes a wide sweep to the north, 

 flowing along the foot-hills of the Swabian and Franconian Jura and the Bavarian 

 Forest. It passes through a few rocky defiles, but for the greater part of its course 

 alluvial soil forms its southern bank. The river, which formerly spread out into 

 a lake covering the whole of the Bavarian plateau, is now represented only by the 

 marshy tracts known as the "Donau-Ried " and the " Donau-Moos." The lateral 

 branches of the Danube are graduall}^ disappearing, man aiding the operations of 

 nature. Of the tributary rivers those entering on the right are by far the most 



Fig. 136.— The Don a.v -Moos. 



Scale 1 : 104,000. 





8«6lk 



^^î^l''^ '^^'W i 





2 JVliles. 



important, not only on account of their volume, but also because of their traversing 

 the whole of the Bavarian plateau. The Inn, a larger stream than the Upper 

 Danube, though much inferior to it as an historical highway, thus flows for more 

 than 100 miles over the plateau before it joins the Danube in the gorge of 

 Passau. The Alpine tributaries of the Danube divide the whole of Uj)per Bavaria 

 into a number of lozenge-shaped sections, and they exercise a considerable influence 

 upon the direction of the aerial currents. The prevailing winds blow either from 

 the west or the east, thus following the foot of the Alps, but the secondary winds 

 ascend or descend the valleys leading up into the Alps.* 



* Altitudes along the Dnniibe ! — The Brege at Fui-twangen, 2,536 feet; the Brigach at Villingen, 

 2,316 feet; confluence of the Brege and Brigach, 2,220 feet ; at Tuttlingen, above the gorge of the Jura, 

 2.106 feet; at Sigmaringen, below the gorge, 1,777 feet; at Ulm, 1,634 feet ; at Katisbon, 1,010 feet; at 

 Passau, 957 feet. 



