THUEINGIA AND THE IIARZ. 



261 



as the intermediary of the commerce carried on between Frankfort and the 

 valley of the Weser. Hersfekl (6,929 inhabitants) is the only other large town 

 on the Fulda as far down as Cassel. 



The Upper Werra, the head-stream of the Weser, takes its course through 

 the Saxon duchies of Coburg-Gotha and Meiningen before it enters Hesse, 

 Ilildburghausen (5,162 inhabitants) is the principal town near its source. Meinin- 

 gen (9,521 inhabitants) enjoys some importance as the capital of a duchy, but 

 is inferior in industry to its neighbour Snhl (10,513 inhabitants), a Prussian 

 town, in the midst of the mountains, and not far from the crest of the Thuringian 

 Forest. Suhl has many iron mines in its vicinity, and formerly it deserved to be 



Fig. 149. — Cassel and its Environs. 

 Scale 1 : 100,000. 



'»° 2j * of r, 



2 Miles. 



called the " arsenal " of Germany. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it 

 supplied vast quantities of armour, and during the Seven Years' "War furnished 

 both Austria and Prussia with swords. It still manufactures arms of every 

 description, including rifles, though far inferior now to Essen and Solingen. 



Sehmalkalden (6,185 inhabitants), like Suhl, lies in a tributary valley of the 

 "Werra, and owes its prosperity to its iron works. The outer physiognomy of 

 the town has undergone but little change since 1531, in which year the Pro- 

 testant princes met there to combine against Charles V. There are salt works 

 at Sehmalkalden, but those of Salzungen (3,724 inhabitants), on the Werra, are 

 far more important. Near the latter is the favourite watering-place of Liehen- 

 stein. 



