mbine through the Elstergebirge with the
Fichtelgebirge, which in their turn are united with the Bohmerwald
through the plateau of Waldsassen. To the east the Erzgebirge are
separated from the Elbsandsteingebirge by the Nollendorf pass, traversed
by the ancient military route to Saxony; it was the route followed by
Napoleon I. after the battle of Dresden (1813). To the south stretches
the "Thermopylae of Bohemia," the scene of the battle of Kulm and
Arbesau. A little farther to the east the Elbe escapes into Saxony at
the lowest point in Bohemia (alt. 367 ft.). The north-east frontier is
formed by the Sudetes, which comprise the Lausitzergebirge (2500 ft.),
the Isergebirge (with the highest peak, the Tafelfichte, 3683 ft.), the
Jeschkengebirge (3322 ft.), and the Riesengebirge. The Riesengebirge
(Czech _Kroknose_) are, after the Alps, among the highest mountains of
central Europe, and attain in the Schneekoppe an altitude of 5264 ft.
The last groups of the Sudetes in Bohemia are the Heuscheuergebirge
(2532 ft.) and the Adlergebirge (3664 ft.). The fourth side of the rhomb
is formed by the so-called Bohemian-Moravian Hills, a plateau or broad
series of low hills, composed of primitive rocks, and attaining in some
places an altitude of 2500 ft.

The interior of Bohemia has sometimes been compared to a deep basin; but
for the most part it is an undulating plateau, over 1000 ft. high,
formed by a succession of terraces, which gradually slope down from
south to north. Its lowest-lying points are not in the middle but in the
north, in the valley of the Elbe, and the country can be divided into
two parts by a line passing through Hohenmauth-Prague-Komotau. The part
lying to the south of this line can be designated as highland, and only
the part north of it as lowland. The mountain-ranges of the interior of
Bohemia are the Brdywald (2798 ft.) in the middle; the Tepler Gebirge
(2657 ft.), the Karsbader Gebirge (3057 ft.) and the Kaiserwald (3238
ft.), in the north-west part; while the northern corner is occupied by
the Mittelgebirge (2739 ft.), a volcanic massif, stretching on both
sides of the Elbe.

Bohemia belongs to the watershed of the Elbe, which rises within the
territory and receives on the right the Iser and the Polzen, and on the
left the Adler; the Eger with its affluent the Tepl; the Biela and the
Moldau. But the principal river of ~~ Bohemia, from every point of
view, is the Moldau (Czech _Vltava_), not the Elbe. A