The first division is the long limestone range of the _Jura_, with its
magnificent pine forests. Beyond, bordering the Rhine valley, rises the
_Schwarzwald_, or Black Forest, then the _Odenwald_ and the _Rhön_
mountains, leading into the _Vogelsberg_ and _Taunus_, and to the
outlying _Harz_, the farthest north of the central European heights.
Turning eastward, we reach the _Thüringerwald_, the _Fichtel Gebirge_,
and the metalliferous or _Erz Gebirge_; then across the Elbe, in Saxon
Switzerland, come the _Riesen Gebirge_ (the Giant Range), and the
_Sudetic Mountains_, extending to the Oder. Turning south again towards
the Alps, the _Mährische Höhen_ (the Mavorian heights) are reached, and
joining with these to close in the high valley of the Upper Elbe, the
high _Böhmerwald_, the forest mountain of Bohemia. Almost all the area
of South Germany, including Würtemberg, Bavaria, and Bohemia, enclosed
by these heights, which extend northward from the Alpine mass, is high
plateau land.