Professor G. Forclihammer oti the Dotvns of Denmark, 73 



many remains of land and fresh-water plants, while the drift- 

 sand, as already stated, not unfrequently contains oyster- shells, 

 we have in this case just such alternations as tertiary rocks 

 present. 



By much the most remarkable bed of Martorv is, however, 

 that already mentioned, which includes the most northern 

 part of Jutland. For the distance of nearly five English miles 

 from Skiveren to Hoyen, it extends continuously like a black 

 stripe in the perpendicular cliff. Generally it reposes on a 

 fine sand, which, on a superficial glance, might be regarded 

 as drift- sand, but which belongs to the sea, and which partly 

 contains separate rolled stones, and partly includes within it- 

 self actual beds of boulders. This layer, which lies in the 

 midst of sand, has in it something so extraordinary, considered 

 as a peat-moor, that another explanation has been had recourse 

 to. It has been regarded as a turf-covering (Rasen-Decke) 

 spread over by the western storms ; but although storms can 

 tear up the turf, still in the present case the explanation is 

 inadmissible, and Dr Ringel has years ago pointed out this 

 formation as a dried peat-moor covered by drift-sand. There 

 are found in it many marsh plants, such as the seeds of Meny- 

 anthes trifoUata, as well as the stems and twigs of birches, 

 oaks, poplars, and willows ; also insects, deer's antlers, and 

 the teeth of oxen. It likewise contains artificial products, 

 such as arrow heads of flint, a circumstance which proves that it 

 must have been a lalce or an actual moor after the country was 

 inhabited. We have every reason, however, to assume that 

 this great peat-moor was at one time a lake, for in the lake 

 moors we find everywhere distributed through the country the 

 ' antlers of deer and elks, the skulls and horns of oxen, and 

 rarely the antlers of rein-deer ; remains regarding which we 

 must assume, that, when the moor was a lake, the animals to 

 which they belonged must have broken or sunk through the 

 floating covering of moss which we still find on many of our 

 lakes at present in existence. It strikes us with astonishment 

 when we reflect on the changes which this north-eastern ex- 

 tremity of Jutland must have undergone since man inhabited 

 the country ; for the lake in which this turf was found must 

 have been at least five miles long, and now the whole is eo- 



