Professor G. Forchhammer on the Downs of Denmark. 67 



produced a vein of coarse sand in the down. This very pe- 

 culiar formation of a vein is extremely well marked on the 

 west coast between Hjorring and Skagen, not far from a vil- 

 lage called Skiveren. The beach there consists of horizontally 

 stratified sand, deposited by the sea, which contains, distri- 

 buted throughout its whole mass, separate beach stones ; and 

 upon this sand there reposes drift-sand. The wind has blown 

 away the sand and collected the stones into a bed, which is 

 highly inclined towards the sea, and consequently cuts the 

 original beds under more or less considerable angles. Upon 

 this bed of sand, there has again been deposited drift- 

 sand, as shewn by Fig. 1, Plate III., and so given rise to 

 a peculiar kind of vein composed of large stones, and 

 even urns and stone- weapons. There are also interesting 

 examples of interrupted and saddle-shaped stratification 

 (Fig. 2.). Not unfrequently we meet with shells high up on 

 the downs, more especially oyster-shells. These are brought 

 thither by the oyster-catchers, which drag their prey on the 

 downs in order to devour it there, and they furnish the re- 

 maining feature to complete the resemblance of the aerial to 

 the marine formations. Stratification, veins of coarse sand, and 

 even petrifactions of the shell-fish of the sea, are here com- 

 bined, and yet water has not directly had the smallest share in 

 this formation, — a circumstance which should give the geo- 

 logist a lesson of caution in drawing his conclusions. Let 

 us imagine this series of downs, with its strata of up- 

 wards of two hundred miles, and unaltered stratification, 

 converted into sandstone, and under circumstances in 

 which its origin and mode of formation could not be 

 directly ascertained ; would the observer not have re- 

 course to Plutonic heavings, when he saw the highly-inclined 

 strata, the sharply-marked longitudinal and transverse valleys, 

 and the interrupted ridges ? We may ask where is the down- 

 formation of the ancient period, and in what formation shall 

 we find it ? We know the coast limestone of ancient time 

 but I am not prepared to indicate any where the sandstones 

 which represent the downs ; probably most of the downs 

 were again destroyed by a subsequent covering of the sea, 

 ere any action could bind together the loose sand into a solid 

 sandstone ; but it may be assumed that somewhere circum- 



