FIXATION OF THE DUNES ON THE COAST OF 

 JUTLAND.* 



By W. J. Morrill. 



Shifting sands are causing trouble along the Columbia River 

 in Oregon, as well as in other parts of the United States. Hence 

 information on the methods in Demark employed to stop the 

 shifting of sands will be of some interest to American foresters. 



Along the west coast of Jutland, there were formerly forests of 

 pine and sprucet. These forests were eventually recklessly 

 exploited and eventually, the coast became naked, and the interior 

 forests became sadly depleted. The west winds now swept 

 across the peninsula unobstructed, the soil was dried out and lost 

 its humus, exposing the sandy mineral soil and immense areas 

 which had successfully grown forests were impoverished. 

 Heather gradually succeeded in occupying much ground which 

 had been forest clad, and the heather produced an acid humus, 

 which caused an impervious hardpan to form. The worst conse- 

 quences, however, appeared near the coast ; sand was carried by 

 the wind far back from the beach, as far, oftentimes as three or 

 four miles. In places where the sand could find lodgement in the 

 shelter of such obstacles as large rocks or even pieces of wood, a 

 small mound of sand would form, just as drifts of snow form in 

 similar circumstances. Sand grasses grew on these small mounds 

 and served to hold them in place ; as the mounds slowly grew, the 

 grass grew with them always keeping above the layers of sand 

 which slowly form new coverings for the ambitious mound. The 

 nearer the beach the more rapid is the growth of the mound. 

 Eventually the small mounds grow into veritable banks and even 

 into hills which do not even then cease growing. If the hills 

 would arrange themselves in a single row to form a huge wall for 

 the protection of the inner country, matters would not be so bad ; 

 but these hills are migratory. Like the true frontiersmen, they 

 no sooner become well settled and prosperous when they break up 



*Adapted from an article by John Givskov of Copenhagen, Denmark. 

 fThis is questionable ! — Ed. 



