GENERAL VIEWS ON ARCHEOLOGY. 305 



of a special study, and that for about twenty years past. 1 The folio w- 

 lowing are the principal results : 



Denmark is very rich in peat, and we distinguish there several 

 kinds of peat-bogs, according to circumstances of location, extent, and 

 internal composition. They are : 



1°. Tlie Kjaermose or Engmose, of the Danes ; Wiesenmoor, of the 

 Germans ; which may be translated by bog-meadows. This kind of 

 bog occupies especially the bottoms of wide valleys, alongside of water 

 courses and low grounds, often bordering on lakes. They are also 

 disposed to take possession of the bottom of bays and shallow fjords, 

 whence the sea then retires little by little. The kjaermose are formed 

 principally of the remains of rushes and herbaceous plants, with but 

 few mosses. They present in their formation infra-aquatic parts, and 

 supra-aquatic or emerged parts. The first owe their origin to plants 

 that grow at the bottom of the water. The kjaermose are generally of 

 a less thickness than the other peat-bogs ; they are usually not more 

 than from five to twelve feet deep. 



2. The Lyngmose, Svampmose, or Hoermose, of the Danes ; Heid- 

 emoor or Hochmoor, of the Germans; which may be translated heather 

 bogs. They often occupy very extended planes, the surface of which 

 is above the level of the sea. They are formed of decayed mosses, 

 {sphagnum and hypnam,) and are covered with heather. These bogs 

 are ordinarily from eight to ten and sometimes fourteen feet deep. 



3°. The Skovmose, of the Danes ; which may be rendered by WaM 

 moor in German, and by forest-bogs in English. 2 They are the most- 

 interesting, and deserve to be discussed in detail. 



The Skovmose occupy in the quaternary lands of Denmark singular 

 depressions of rounded form and slight extent, when there are not sev- 

 eral joined together, but of a depth that reaches to thirty feet or, more. 

 These quaternary lands are in a great part deposits of erratic origin, 

 formed from compact glacial mud, inclosing pebbles and blocks of stone 

 of Swedish origin. These latter are often polished and sharply stria- 

 ted, just as we frequently observe on the surface of the- great blocks 

 forming the sepulchral halls, in the interior of the tu.muli of the age 

 of stone. These abrupt depressions of the ground in, such a soil are 

 rather surprising and difficult to explain. There are some that owe 

 perhaps their origin to the sinking in of the subjacent calcareous rocks. 

 In his travels in Iceland, Mr. Steenstrup remarked that blocks of ice 

 detached from the great glaciers became sometimes mixed up with 

 the materials of the moraine, and then produced, when they are 

 melted, depressions of the surface very analogous to those alluded to 

 in Denmark. 



The Skovmose display the following internal composition. Astht-ir 

 edges were more or less precipitous, the trees that grew there,, 

 when they had become very large, ultimately lost their balance and 



x The principal essay of Mr. Steenstrup on this subject is to be found in the Memoirs of the 

 Academy of Sciences of Copenhagen, vol. IX, 1842. An excellent work in French on the 

 same subject is : "Some Researches on the Peat-bogs," by L. Lesquereux. Neuchatel, 1844. 



2 Skov signifies forest, and mose marsh, 



20 



