HAUT-RHIN

dpartement, Alsace rgion, eastern France, bordering Switzerland and separated from Germany by the Rhine River. It was created in 1790 from the southern portion of Alsace and ceded to Prussia in 1871 after the Franco-German War. Restored to France after World War I, it was again annexed by Germany during World War II and became French again in 1945. Following the construction of the Alsace Grand Canal through the dpartement, the Rhine became accessible to barges of up to 1,350 tons from the sea to Basel, Switz. The Rhine-Rhne Canal also crosses the dpartement, entering it in the southwest and passing through Mulhouse, the largest town. The Ill River, a tributary of the Rhine that flows south-north through Haut-Rhin, also passes through Mulhouse and Colmar, the departmental capital. The granite Vosges mountains, covered with forests and relieved by glacial valleys, occupy most of the western half of Haut-Rhin. They culminate in Mount Guebwiller (4,669 feet ), from the top of which in clear weather there is a magnificent panorama of the southern Vosges, the Black Forest in Germany, and the Jura and the Alps ranges. The Vosges fall abruptly to the fertile alluvial plain occupying most of the eastern half; between the two and intermediate in elevation are the sub-Vosgian hills, part of the wine country of Alsace, notable by virtue of the rainfall it receives at the foot of the Vosges escarpment. In the southeast a vast forest separates Mulhouse from the Rhine. Winters are cold, summers are hot, and the rainfall is low. Mixed farming is carried out in the eastern half of the dpartement, which is noted for its winesRiquewihr, Riesling, Traminer, and Sylvanerand for its asparagus and foie gras. Industry has been highly developed, particularly in the Mulhouse area, in which some of the biggest potash deposits in the world are located. The dpartement is divided into six arrondissementsColmar, Altkirch, Guebwiller, Mulhouse, Ribeauville, and Thannand is in the educational division of Strasbourg. Area 1,361 square miles (3,525 square km). Pop. (1991 est.) 673,900.