406 Agricultural Tour 



these three duchies^, the whole of the Danish islands — ^with the 

 exception of Bornholm — and a part of the south of Sweden, are 

 covered with a variable thickness of sands^ gravels, clays, and 

 marls, in which rolled stones (boulders) of various kinds and 

 sizes abound, and by the presence of which these beds are almost 

 everywhere characterised. In Zealand and Funen, in some of 

 the smaller islands, and on the eastern part of Holstein and 

 Sleswick, this deposit (the boulder formation) forms an undulatino^ 

 country of hill and dale — of rounded hills and basin-shaped 

 hollows. The whole of this undulating tract is rich in clay and 

 marl, and abounds in marl-pits. Many of the hollows are filled 

 with peat, or, where this has been much dug out for fuel, as in 

 Zealand, with small sheets of water — and the whole of the drier 

 country bears naturally luxuriant woods of beech, or, when in 

 skilful culture, yields abundant crops of rape and corn. Nearly- 

 all that is rich in Danish agriculture is to be seen upon the undu- 

 lating part of this formation. 



Chemically considered, this boulder formation differs from the 

 sandy ahl formation which lies above it by the large proportion of 

 lime it contains. This lime has been derived, as is shown by the 

 many blocks of chalk that are scattered through this formation, 

 from the ancient destruction of some of the chalk-rocks which 

 still abound in Denmark, and it is not only deposited in nests and 

 layers of marl, — so rich in calcareous matter that it is profitable 

 to dig it up and lay it upon the land — but it is generally dis- 

 seminated through the sands and clays also in smaller proportion, 

 and thus is a main agent in imparting its natural fertility to a 

 great portion of the country on which this formation rests. But 

 the bottom or lower layers of this same formation consist, where 

 they are best and most extensively seen, of a gravel or sand con- 

 taining many flints, and in many places little lime, and they rest 

 upon dark-coloured beds of a species of clay (belonging to a kind 

 of brown coal formation) , which is said to hold out little promise of 

 being useful in improving the flinty layers that lie above it. With 

 this lower sandy and gravelly deposit, containing flints, the flat 

 parts of Holstein and Sleswick, which belong to this formation, are 

 covered, and they are in great measure open heaths and moors, 

 or unenclosed commons. Over such a flat the traveller passes on 

 his way from Hamburg to Kiel. When the heath disappears, the 

 soil is in many places a white and blowing sand. 



We left Hamburg at 10 p.m., and reached Neu Minster, 

 about half way, early in the morning. The rye which grew near 

 this place appeared to be perfectly ripe (July 6tli), much of it 

 absolutely white ; the oats short, green, and full of wild mustard. 

 The town shepherd, as we changed horses, was blowing his short 

 melancholy cow's-horn, to bring out the cattle for the daily pasture 



