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Spessart

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a highland forest country of Germany, belonging mainly to the Bavarian province of Lower Franconia, but in the north to the Prussian province of Hesse Cassel, and it is bounded on the S. and W. by the Main, on the E. by the Sinn and on the N. by the Kinzig and Joss. The main ridge of the formation, consisting of gneiss, granite and red sandstone, runs from a point opposite Miltenberg, in a north-westerly direction to the source of the Kinzig near Schliichtern - a distance of 45 m. - and attains its highest elevation in the GeiersVerg (1919 ft.), which lies north of the Rohrbrunn pass, through which runs the main road from Aschaffenburg to Wiirzburg. The forest, with which it is densely covered, consists of oak, beech, ash and fir, and the scenery, especially on the main side, between Gemiinden and Lohr, is impressive. The climate is inclement in winter and oppressively hot in midsummer. The inhabitants are engaged chiefly in woodcutting, raftmaking and quarrying, and most of the timber is floated down 1 to Holland. Cobalt, silver, lead and copper are also worked, and the southern and western slopes yield wine of good quality. This beautiful tract of country until recent years was comparatively little known to the tourist, but a club (Spessart Klub) through the establishment of finger-posts and the issue of maps, has indicated the more interesting tours to be followed.

See Bucking, Der nordwestliche Spessart, geologisch aufgeno;nmen (Berlin, 1893); Schober, Fiihrer durch den Spessart (Aschaffenburg, 1904); Wolff, Der Spessart, sein Wirtschaftsleben (ibid., 1905).