CHAPTER yil. 



THE PLAINS OF THE ELBE AND WESER, AND THE SHORES OF THE NORTH SEA. 

 (Lower Westphalia, Hanover, Oldenburg, Lower Brunswick.)* 



General Aspects. — Bogs and Heaths. 



HAT portion of Lower Germany whicli lies to the west of the Elbe 

 and to the north of the hills of the Sauerland, Hesse, and the 

 Harz, presents a great uniformity of geographical features. It 

 is an ancient sea-bottom, in many parts perfectly level, and now 

 covered with swamps, bogs, pastures, and fields. The political 

 condition of this region reflects its natural conformation. Instead of a congeries of 

 small states, such as arose in the hilly districts farther south, we meet with 

 large political domains. Nearly the whole of the country formerly formed part 

 of a single state, recently incorporated with Prussia. A " particularist " sj)irit 

 survives, however, in Hanover, for that country is to a great extent peopled by 

 peasants, tenacious of old customs. But the bonds which now join Hanover to 

 Prussia are indissoluble, and the old capital of the defunct kingdom differs in 

 no respect from any other provincial capital. Bremen, which still rejoices in 

 being a " free city," is one of those towns where the sentiment of German unity 

 has always been most lively. 



The promontories of the Forest of Teutoburg and other hills which mark the 

 ancient extent of the sea are not the only heights that look down upon the 

 plains of Hanover. There are a few isolated groups of hills. The wooded hills 

 of Schoppingen, to the west of Miinster, attain a height of 490 feet. The hills 

 of Bentheim, farther to the north, rise like a group of islands above a sea of 

 swamps and heaths. They, too, are wooded, and furnish building stones and metal 



* Lower Westphalia (Minden and Miinster) . 

 Hanover (exclusive of the Harz) 

 Oldenburg (exclusive of Liiheck and Birkenfe'd) 

 Brunswick (lowland) ...... 



Bremen ........ 



Bailiwick of Ritzetiittel (Hamburg) . 



Total .... 



