Erzgebirge

Erzgebirge ('Ore Mountains'), the name given to the chain of mountains, rich in metals, stretching SW. and NE. for 96 miles on the confines of Saxony and Bohemia, from the valley of the Elbe to the Fichtelgebirge. In the south it rises to a height of from 2500 to 3300 feet, forming a steep wall of rock; in the north it forms broad, slaty plateaus, broken by deep valleys, and gradually slopes down towards the level districts of Altenburg and Leipzig. Many of these valleys are well wooded and romantic, and occasionally fertile and thickly peopled, being watered by the Mulde, the Pleisse, and their numerous tributaries. The chain rises to its highest elevations in the so-called 'Saxon Siberia,' over against Zwickau. Here, in 12° 54' E. long., stands the town of Gottesgabe, the highest in Germany, at an altitude of 3363 feet; and here, too, are the loftiest peaks of the range (Keilberg, 4052 feet; Fichtelberg, 3980; Spitzberg, 3675). The Erzgebirge is chiefly of the gneiss-granite formation, with argillaceous and micaceous slates, porphyry, and basalt. Silver and lead are the principal metals; next come tin, iron, cobalt.