402 Agricultural Totir 



during a short tour I made in the past summer through part of 

 Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. As some of the circumstances I 

 observed were not without interest to myself, I venture to hope 

 that a few notices of what appeared most worthy of record may 

 not prove uninteresting to the members of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society. 



As he ascends the Elbe the stock-farmer will not fail to ob- 

 serve on his left how the marshy lands which skirt the river and 

 stretch for several miles inland, are everywhere dotted with cattle, the 

 herds becoming more frequent and more dense as he ascends, till 

 the pasture is cut off by the bluffs of Blankanaes, where the high 

 sandhills begin to confine the river. To these marshes the lean 

 cattle of the Jutlands are annually driven to be fattened. 



From the mouth of the Eyder, in the south of Sleswick, to that 

 of the Elbe, and up the latter river, narrowing as it ascends, 

 this band of marsh-land girdles the south-western part of the 

 Danish territory. That portion which lies on the sea-coast 

 between the two rivers, a district 30 or 40 miles in length, forms 

 the Dit-marsh. The Wilster and Krempe marshes lie on the 

 north shore of the Elbe, in the neighbourhood of the town of 

 Gluckstadt, which is generally admired by the stranger as he 

 ascends the river — and the more so, probably, because the smooth- 

 ness of the water makes him now forget the pains of the rough 

 sea, and invites him upon deck. From these latter marshes the 

 best oxen are brought to the Hamburg market. These cattle are 

 fattened entirely upon the natural grasses, the culture of turnips 

 being almost wholly unknown, and other artificial food seldom 

 had recourse to except in the neighbourhood of breweries and 

 distilleries. 



It is a curious geological fact in regard to the Wilster and 

 Krempe marshes, on which these cattle are fattened, that they are 

 known to be gradually sinking in level. Within the last 300 

 years they are said to have sunk about 7 feet, and an area of 30 

 square miles is now 3 feet below the level of high- water in the 

 Elbe. The whole tract is saved from inundation only by the 

 careful preservation of the embankments. On boring, the cause" 

 of this sinking becomes apparent. Ten feet of fertile silty clay 

 rest (float ?) on 30 feet of water ; at the bottom of which is the 

 sand of an ancient sea-beach. How this singular arrangement of 

 land upon water has taken place, it is not easy to explain in a 

 satisfactory manner. My friend Professor Forchhammer, of 

 Copenhagen, to whom I am indebted for the fact, suggests that 

 the silt may originally have been deposited upon a bank of sea- 

 weed, and that the slow decay of the latter may have left the 

 vacuity which is now filled with water. However this may be, 

 only long habit, one would suppose^ can reconcile people to live 



