58 Dr Forchhammer on the 



on the level of the sea. On the coast of Sealand, opposite to 

 Saltholm, no trace of rocks in situ occur, but such a number 

 of fragments of a similar limestone, but much richer in fossils, 

 are found, that many limekilns are constantly occupied in con- 

 verting them to quicklime. 



The first place on the coast of Sealand where solid rocks 

 again make their appearance are the cliffs of Steven, (Stevens- 

 klint) well known to the sailors of the Baltic as a very danger- 

 ous place, until some years ago the erection of a lighthouse has 

 almost entirely prevented all shipwrecks on these coasts. 

 The cliff extends for five or six English miles along the shore, 

 with a mean height of about sixty or seventy feet. It is with 

 very few exceptions perpendicular ; and only on three places 

 along the whole cliff a footpath leads up to the higher plateau. 

 The fishermen make use of ropes and ladders to descend 

 to their boats, which they screen against the impetuosity of 

 the sea behind huge masses of the rock fallen down from the 

 precipice. Under the cliff there is generally room enough for 

 a narrow footpath ; but in several places the rocks descend 

 perpendicularly into the sea, and the wanderer must betake 

 himself to his boat, or make use of the contrivances of the 

 fishermen to ascend to the upper surface. 



The lowermost bed of this cliff, which, with very few excep- 

 tions, may be observed along its whole extent, is chalk ; it is 

 very soft, and formed sometime ago a considerable exportation 

 to the ports of the Baltic. It is very distinctly stratified, and 

 divided into beds of one, two, or three feet in thickness. Beds 

 of nodular flint occur parallel to the stratification, and twelve, 

 sixteen, or twenty feet distant from each other. The flint has a 

 conchoidal fracture, and is very hard ; generally of a dark 

 smoke gray-colour. These beds of flint continue with a very 

 great regularity, and the principal one, distinguished by its 

 great thickness, (1£ foot,) and its vicinity to the upper sur- 

 face of the chalk may be observed from one end of the cliff 

 to the other. It has a very slight dip to the S. W. In 

 whatever direction we may consider this bed of flint and those 

 beneath it, it appears constantly in a straight line, which makes 

 a very great difference between the flint of the chalk and those 

 of superior beds, to be described hereafter. Above the large 



