good distance apart.

For the first thirty, or in parts, fifty miles from the Mountains,
Silesia slopes somewhat rapidly; and is still to be called a
Hill-country, rugged extensive elevations diversifying it: but
after that, the slope is gentle, and at length insensible, or
noticeable only by the way the waters run. From the central part of
it, Schlesien pictures itself to you as a plain; growing ever
flatter, ever sandier, as it abuts on the monotonous endless
sand-flats of Poland, and the Brandenburg territories; nothing but
Boundary Stones with their brass inscriptions marking where the
transition is; and only some Fortified Town, not far off, keeping
the door of the Country secure in that quarter.

On the other hand, the Mountain part of Schlesien is very
picturesque; not of Alpine height anywhere (the Schnee-Koppe itself
is under 5,000 feet), so that verdure and forest wood fail almost
nowhere among the Mountains; and multiplex industry, besung by
rushing torrents and the swift young rivers, nestles itself high
up; and from wheat husbandry, madder and maize husbandry, to
damask-weaving, metallurgy, charcoal-burning, tar-distillery,
Schlesien has many trades, and has long been expert and busy at
them to a high degree. A very pretty Ellipsis, or irregular Oval,
on the summit of the European Continent;--"like the palm of a left
hand well stretched out, with the Riesengebirge for thumb!" said a
certain Herr to me, stretching out his arm in that fashion towards
the northwest. Palm, well stretched out, measuring 250 miles; and
the crossway 100. There are still beavers in Schlesien; the
Katzbach River has gold grains in it, a kind of Pactolus not now
worth working; and in the scraggy lonesome pine-woods, grimy