THUEINGIA AND THE HAEZ. 



257 



slopes and in its south-east portion, known as Untcr Ilarz. The cold northerly 

 winds which blow on its higher slopes prevent the forests from recovering, and the 

 vegetation is confined to mosses and lichens. In many parts the rocks are 

 perfectly naked, and the inclemencies of the weather have split them up into 

 grotesque masses. " Seas of rocks," similar to the " lapiaz " and " Karrenfelder " 

 of the Alps, are met with; they are the "cursed rocks," in whose midst the 

 witches executed their dances in the WaJpurgis Night. The Harz forms the first 

 obstacles which the moisture-laden winds meet with in their passage across 

 Germany. This accounts for the frequency of mists and torrential rains. 

 But notwithstanding the great amount of precipitation, springs are rare in the 



Fig. 147. — The Brocken axd Wernigerode. 

 Scale 1 : 135,000. 



ww^< 



2 Miles. 



Harz, the water being sucked up by fissures. The elevated mosses fortunately 

 retain a large quantity of moisture, and, like the glaciers of the Alps, they regulate 

 the flow of the rivulets. 



The Harz abounds in mines. "Whilst the hills bounding the Weser princi- 

 pally yield salt, the more elevated mass of the Hercynian Forest has been famous 

 for ages on account of its mines of silver, lead, and iron. The Harz is one of the 

 oldest mining districts of Germany. The argentiferous ore of Rammelsberg, near 

 Goslar, is said to have been discovered towards the close of the tenth century, and 

 already enriched the neighbouring towns during the eleventh. It was the miners 

 of the Harz who became the instructors of those of the Saxon Ore Mountains. In 

 90 



