The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Fichtelgebirge

FICHTELGEBIRGE, fiH'tel-gĕ-bēr'gĕ, a mountain range, chiefly situated in the northeast of Bavaria, once covered with pines (Fichte, “pine”), and constituting a watershed between the head-feeders of the Elbe, the Rhine and the Danube. The elevation of the peaks ranges from 2,700 to 3,400 feet. The highest summits are Schneeberg (3,461 feet) and Ochsenkopf (3,334). In their northern extremities the Fichtelgebirge are connected by intermediate chains, on the one hand with the Erzgebirge, and on the other with the Thuringian Forest. They are composed principally of granite and primitive crystalline slates, with bands and intrusions of gneiss, micaceous slates, basalt and some strata of the Tertiary Age (Oligocän). The climate is moist and disagreeable in the elevated sections; snow lies on the summits from October to May. The former rich ore deposits are now exhausted; quarrying, timbering and glass manufacture are the chief industries. Of recent years the Fichtelgebirge have come much into vogue with tourists. Consult Ruchdeschel, ‘Handbook of Bavaria.’