PHYSICAL FEATURES AND CLIMATE. The sur face consists of level, hilly, and mountainous sec tions. Upper Hesse is mountainous. and is identified with the basaltic Vogelsberg, situated in the east, and rising to a height of about 2500 feet. From this group radiate spurs and out liers west and north through the province, leav ing in the south the Wetterau, an extensive, undulating, and arable tract of Upper llesse. Into the southwestern part of the provinee ex tends the northern end of the Taunus, about 2000 feet high. The eastern half of Starkenburg is also mountainous, being occupied by the Oden wald Range, with four peaks reaching about 2300 Hardberg, etc. The west ern part is in the Rhine valley proper, and in the north lies the low region bordering on the Main. Rhine-Hesse is mostly in the Rhine plain. The western part of this province consists of a rolling country of hills. The Hardt enter on the southwest, but their highest point (the Eichelherg) has an altitude of only about 1050 feet. The Rhine and the Main form the north
border of the southern division of Hesse. The whole grand duchy, except the Vogelsberg dis trict, belongs to the Rhine basin. The Neckar barely reaches 'Hesse on the south. Other Rhine tributaries from the right are the Lahn, the Wesehnitz, and the Modau. On the left the lIhine receives the Selz and Nahe. To the Weser basin section of Upper Ilesse belong the Fulda and the Schwalm.
The climate differs somewhat in 'Hie two main divisions of the 1111 eh y being rather raw and cold in most of the northern part. while the southern division (except the Odenwald) and the Wetterau have the kild climate of Southern Germany. Tire mean animal temperature in Darmstadt is 49° F.—in summer 65°, in winter 29.7°: average rainfall, 33 inches. There are several mineral springs and salt-water baths in Hesse; namely, at Salzhausen. Bad Naitheim. etc.