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been of still greater importance in the formation of the Hondsrug. 
Beyond the Hondsrug also, even as far west as Hoogeveen, the 
underground consists of preglacial “Rhine-Diluvium”. In the Peat- 
moss of Ees it is covered by at most 1 M. of boulder-sand. In the 
Elders Veld between Schoonoord and Schoonloo the preglacial Rhine- 
sand is of a yellowish grey colour, on account of its intimate mixing 
with parts of the upper bed. The occurrence of small water-worn 
pebbles of white quartz and lydite, repeatedly stated to a depth of 
2 M., serves to show, that here too we have chiefly before us old 
Rhine-alluvia, which only later on were mixed with the bottom- 
moraine. At Schoonloo, in a sand digging, a kind of “Mixed Dilu- 
vium” (Gemengd diluvium) is to be observed; water-worn pebbles 
of white quartz and lydite are seen in the sand side by side with 
Scandinavian granites. On the Elders Veld boulder-clay is only found 
in single small patches, such as the one at 1.5 K.M. south-west of 
Schoonloo. 
In the midst of the Peat-moss of Ees, at a distance of 4 K.M. 
exactly south from Westdorp, a round hillock rises above the perfectly 
level environs, not unlike a small volcanic island above the sea. With 
a basis of about 30 M. of diameter and a height of circa 5 M. it resembles 
a very large tumulus; it is the renowned Brammershoop. 
The constitution of this hillock, however, is inconsistent with the idea, 
which presents itself at first sight, that we have before us a 
work of mans making. It is indeed composed of white quartz- 
sand with well rounded small pebbles of white quartz and lydite, 
the same preglacial Rhine-sand, which also constitutes the underground 
of the surrounding region with a mantle of glacial boulder-sand only 
0.2 to 0.5 M. thick. 
Still less than in the case of the Hondsrug it will do here, to 
attribute the origin of the elevation to pressure of the pushing ice; 
for how could the motion have been directed from all sides towards 
that single point! As it appears to me, the only way to explain how 
only there the soil was pressed upward, in the form of an isle, is 
to suppose that a minimum of pressure of the ice, has existed there, 
most probably in consequence of a former Gletschermühle (moulin) in 
the period of the melting of the ice. 
Not’ improbably then we have, partially or perhaps chiefly, to impute 
the elevation of the preglacial Rhine-sand in the Hondsrug to a 
similar minimum of ice-pressure, at the place of a large river-bed, 
formerly occupied by melting water, and carved in the surface of 
the ice in the direction from north-west to south-east, or may-be to 
a large and long crack in the same direction. 
