CHAPTER YI. 



THURINGIA AND THE HAKZ. 



(Hesse-Cassel, Thuringia, Erfurt, Southern Hanover, and Brunswick.)* 



General Aspects, Mountains, and Rivers. 



HAT portion of Germany whicli separates the south from the north, 



the basin of the Danube from those of the Weser and Elbe, forms 

 a distinct region, historically and geographically. Though abound- 

 ing in easy passes, it has for ages formed a world apart, around 

 which political and social life has had a development of its own. 

 As a barrier of separation between north and south, Thuringia proved all the 

 more efficacious, as the mountains of Bohemia advance there like a bastion far 

 towards the west. In Europe the tendency of migratory tribes has always been 

 to follow the path of the sun, and hence they passed either to the north or 

 south of Thuringia, without interfering with the tribes who had settled in its 

 valleys. Owing to the great diversity of the country, and its many river basins, 

 these tribes grouped themselves into independent communities, and this accounts 

 for the complication of existing political boundaries. Saxe-Weimar, for instance, 

 consists of three main portions, with twenty-four outlying bits of territory. 



* Hesse-Cassel (Prussian district of Cassel) . 

 Principality of Waldeck ..... 

 Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar 

 Duchy of Saxe-l\Ieiningen .... 

 ,, Saxe-Altenburg .... 



„ Saxe-Coburg-Gotha .... 

 Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt . 



,, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen 



„ Eeuss, senior branch 



,, Eeuss, junior .... 



Prussian district of Erfurt .... 



Circles of the Harz (Prussian province of Hanover) 

 Hilly part of the Duchy of Brunswick 

 Principality of Lippe-Detmold .... 



„ Schaumburg Lippe . 



Total 



13,226 



2,881,709 



218 



