Europe : — a popular Physical Sketch. 511 



which also is the case with HundsrucJc, Eifel, &c. on the 

 western bank of the Rhine ; which of course receives their 

 rivers. 



The following mountains, which as they send their rivers 

 to the Weser river might be denominated the Weser moun- 

 tains, viz., Harz, a somewhat isolated chain flattened above, 

 of 2133 feet mean elevation (Brocken, Blocksberg, 3733 feet) 

 which is rich in minerals, chiefly iron, lead, silver, and cop- 

 per, also arsenic, zinc, and cobalt. Clausthal and Andreas- 

 berg, two mountain towns, are built 2133 feet above the 

 level of the sea. The Weser mountains, properly so called, 

 are much lower, of 440 feet mean elevation, with the highest 

 peaks about 1280 feet, also Das Rhongebirge, and several 

 exhausted volcanoes belong to those low mountains. Thii- 

 ringerwald and Frankenwald, 1500 feet mean elevation, (Gros- 

 ser Beerberg 3413 feet) form a transition to those moun- 

 tains, which contain the sources of the river Elbe. 

 , The centre of Bohemia is a basin-shaped depression, sur- 

 rounded by mountains, Elbe-mountains as they might be 

 termed, which are generally speaking flattened above, and 

 therefore approach to what is commonly called land ridges, 

 although loftier mountains rise from these. The surround- 

 ing mountains are Titchtelgebirge, NW. of Bohemia, 1708 

 feet (Schneeberg 3413); Erzgebirge in the north, steep 

 towards Bohemia, sloping towards Saxony, 1600 feet (Sch- 

 warzwald 4053), Bohmerwald in the W. and S., a kind of 

 mountain-plain 2666 feet, Heidelberg 4160, Arber 4053 feet, 

 Sudetes (the northern extremity of which is called Riesenge- 

 birge) towards NE. 2666 feet, Schneekoppe 4213 feet, Glat- 

 zer Schneeberg 4586 feet. Of those the Erzgebirge are 

 particularly rich in ores (silver, copper, iron, leadi cobalt, 

 nickel.) In the Fichtelgebirge the remarkable limestone 

 caves contain bones of fossil mammalia, particularly bears. 



In like manner as Bohemia, the large Hungarian plain is 

 also surrounded by mountains ; in the W. and SW. by the 



