rchy. From an
orographic point of view, Bohemia constitutes amongst the Austrian
provinces a separate massif, bordered on three sides by mountain ranges:
on the S.W. by the Bohmerwald or Bohemian Forest; on the N.W. by the
Erzgebirge or Ore Mountains; and on the N.E. by the Riesengebirge or
Giant Mountains and other ranges of the Sudetes. The Bohmerwald, which,
like its parallel range, the Sudetes, has a general direction from S.E.
to N.W., is divided by the pass of Neumark into two parts. The northern
part (Czech _Cesky Les_) attains in the massif of Czerkov an altitude of
3300 ft., but the southern part (Czech _Sumava_) is at the same time the
highest and the most picturesque part of the range, including on the
Bohemian side the Osser (4053 ft.) and the Plockenstein (4513 ft.),
although the highest peak, the Arber (4872), is in Bavaria. The beauty
of this range of mountains consists in its pure crystalline torrents, in
the numerous blue lakes of its valleys, and above all in the magnificent
forests of oak and pine with which its sides are covered. The pass of
Neumark, called also the pass of Neugedein, has always been the
principal approach to Bohemia from Germany. It stretches towards the
east, above the small town of Taus (Czech _Domazlice_, once called
_Tuhost_, i.e. the Fortress), and is the place where some of the
bloodiest battles in the history of Bohemia were fought. Here in the
first half of the 7th century Samo repulsed the invading hordes of the
Avars, which threatened the independence of the newly-settled Slavonic
inhabitants; here also Wratislas II. defeated the German emperor Henry
III. in a two-days' battle (August 22 and 23, 1040). It was in the same
place that the Hussites gained in 1431 one of their greatest victories
against a German army of crusaders, and another similar German army was
vanquished here by George of Podebrad.

The Erzgebirge (Czech _Rudo Hori_), which form the north-west frontier,
have an average altitude of 2600 ft., and as their highest point, the
Keilberg (4080 ft.). The numerous mining villages, the great number of
cultivated areas and the easy passes, traversed by good roads, give
those mountains in many places the aspect of a hilly undulating plain.
Several of the villages are built very near the summit of the mountains,
and one of them, Gottesgab (pop. about 1500), lies at an altitude of
3345 ft., the highest place in Bohemia and central Germany. To the west
the Erzgebirge co