Brocken

Brocken. or Blocksbeeg, The (anc. Mons Bructerus or Melibocus), the highest point in the Harz Mountains, 20 miles W.S.W. of Halberstadt in Prussian Saxony. It has an elevation of 3,740 feet, and its sides are cultivated almost to the summit. The valleys send up occasionally columns of vapour, leaving the space at the top of the mountain clear, and at sunset or sunrise the shadows of persons on this plateau, being cast upon the bank of cloud, produce the phenomenon known as "The Spectre of the Brocken."