like a mosaic by the capricious lines of valleys and rivers. Here is the
region in which you find those famous roofs from which the rain-water
runs toward two different seas, and the mountain-tops from which you may
look into eight or ten German states. The abundance of water-power and
the presence of extensive coal-mines allow of a very diversified
industrial development in Middle Germany. In Upper Germany, or the high
mountain region, we find the same symmetry in the lines of the rivers as
in the north; almost all the great Alpine streams flow parallel with the
Danube. But the majority of these rivers are neither navigable nor
available for industrial objects, and instead of serving for
communication they shut off one great tract from another. The slow
development, the simple peasant life of many districts is here determined
by the mountain and the river. In the south-east, however, industrial
activity spreads through Bohemia toward Austria, and forms a sort of
balance to the industrial districts of the Lower Rhine. Of course, the
boundaries of these three regions cannot be very strictly defined; but an
approximation to the limits of Middle Germany may be obtained by
regarding it as a triangle, of which one angle lies in Silesia, another
in Aix-la-Chapelle, and a third at Lake Constance.

This triple division corresponds with the broad distinctions of climate.
In the northern plains the atmosphere is damp and heavy; in the southern
mountain region it is dry and rare, and there are abrupt changes of
temperature, sharp contrasts between the seasons, and devastating storms;
but in both these zones men are hardened by conflict with the roughness
of the climate. In Middle Germany, on the contrary, there is little of
this struggle; the seasons are more equable, and the mild, soft air of
the valleys tends to make the inhabitants luxurious and sensitive to
hardships. It is only in exceptional mountain districts that one is here
reminded of the rough, bracing air on the heights of Southern Germany.
It is a curious fact that, as the air becomes gradually lighter and rarer
from the North German coast toward Upper Germany, the average of suicides
regularly decreases. Mecklenburg has the highest number, then Prussia,
while the fewest suicides occur in Bavaria and Austria.

Both the northern and southern regions have still a large extent of waste
lands, downs, morasses, and heaths; and to these are added, in the south,