726 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



noticed that the wind had made a hole in the side of the hill and had carried 

 away some hundreds of wagon loads of earth. Lilcewise in other places hills 

 had been cut into by the wind, exposing several strata of black mold two fin- 

 gers thick, a sure sign that the hills had changed their former nature. Thus 

 never resting Nature plays her pranks and builds up and changes everything 

 continuously. 



In speaking of the wind-blown sand at Angelholm * * * Linne 

 again and more explicitly compares it with snow : 



The blown sand when it is thrown up in drifts reminds one to a certain 

 extent of snow. It is almost as white; it is massed by the wind into drifts 

 of considerable height, where there is a resistance to the wind in the shape of 

 fences, villages, or the like. When it is piled up on both sides of a pole fence 

 the largest quantity, which is flattened out, is found on the leeward side and 

 has a sharp edge at the top turned to windward ; it sweeps the ground, and 

 where there are hillocks it is massed in a long slope behind, not in fx-ont. 

 Like snow, its upper part becomes harder, takes on a crust, and shows small 

 creeping lines on the surface, just like snow. * * * 



This chapter would not be complete if I did not quote Linne's 

 observations on the nature of the sea bottom at shallow and sandy 

 shores. On the trip between Altona and Amsterdam (1735) he had 

 an opportunity of examining such a bottom, of which he (in the Iter 

 ad exteros) tells the following: 



3Iay 2'f. — We landed on an island in eastern Friesland named Nordenoge. 

 * * * One could here easily observe the appearance of the sea bottom. 

 It consisted of a fine white sand which, when dug into, became of a dark gray 

 color, apparently indicating iron. On the top of each elevation there were 

 some small transverse lincw undulosw from the water [wave marks]. Every- 

 where there were small monticuli, of the size of half a handful of earth, with 

 rings of sand resembling pastry or like a big bunch of crawling worms. Un- 

 derneath these there were large himbriei like earthworms, sed punctati, elevati, 

 which resembled sausages filled with sand instead of meat. Forte diversa 

 species [sand worms] were evenly distributed over the whole bottom in in- 

 credible quantities, evidently serving as food for the fishes, and so equally 

 spaced that they seemed to have been quartered there. Between these monticuli 

 there were scattered about, although paticiores, excavationcs semiovativ, with 

 a hole in the middle. What these contained I do not know ; neither do I 

 know whether or not Iniubrici had caused them. When I dug into the bottom 

 there were also found Jiili ruhri, longi. 



During the journey in Westrogothia Linne made similar observa- 

 tions on the coast of the island of Orust. * * * 



We here waded out into the sea until the water was more than knee-deep, 

 botanizing on the sea bottom; we found Zostcram, Ritppiam, borings in the 

 bottom, small elevated worm heaps, and other diminutive things. * * * We 

 noticed that in several places tlie bottom was bored through with pairs of 

 holes not as large in circumference as two fingers, which were always grouped 

 together by twos, never singly or by threes. * * * rpj^e handle of a tobacco 

 pipe went down vertically about 9 inches and then struck against something 

 hard, like a rock ; * * * ]^u^; whenever we commenced to dig with our 

 hands we found at the bottom of each pair of holes a large mussel. * * * 

 Consequently the mussels must have made these holes; but to ascertain how they 



