554 AGE, CHARACTER AT^D PERMANENCE OF DUNES. 



inces of Eussia, but it is probable that tlie entire quantity of dune 

 land upon the Atlantic and Baltic shores of Europe does not fall 

 much short of a million of acres * This vast deposit of sea-sand 

 extends along the coasts for a distance of several hundred miles, 

 and from the time of the destruction of the forests which covered 

 it, to the year 1Y89, the whole line was rolling inwards and bury- 

 ing the soil beneath it, or rendering the fields unproductive by 

 the sand which drifted from it. At the same time, as the sand- 

 hills moved landwards, the ocean was closely following their re- 

 treat and swallowing up the ground they had covered, as fast as 

 their movement left it bare. 



Age^ Character and Permanence of Dunes. 



The origin of many great lines of dunes goes back past all writ- 

 ten history of the lands where they occur. There are, on many 

 coasts, several distinct ranges of sand-hills which seem to be of 

 very different ages, and to have been formed under different rela- 

 tive conditions of land and water.f In some cases there has been 



* In an article on the dunes of Europe, in vol. 39 (1864) of Aus der Natur, 

 p. 590, the dunes are estimated to cover, on the islands and coasts of Schles- 

 wig-Holstein, in Northwest Germany, Denmark, Holland and France, one 

 hundred and eighty-one German, or nearly four thousand English square 

 miles ; in Scotland, about ten German, or two hundred and ten English miles ; 

 in Ireland, twenty German, or four hundred and twenty English miles ; and 

 in England, one hundred and twenty German, or more than twenty -five hun- 

 dred English miles. Pannewitz {Anleltung zum Anbau der Sandjldchen), as 

 cited by Andresen {Om KUtformationen, p. 45), states that the drifting- sands 

 of Europe, including of course sand plains as well as dunes, cover an extent 

 of 21,000 square miles. This is perhaps an exaggeration, though there is, 

 undoubtedly, much more desert-land of this description on the European con- 

 tinent than has been generally supposed. There is no question that most of 

 this waste is capable of reclamation by simple planting, and no mode of physi- 

 cal improvement is better worth the attention of civilized Governments than 

 this. 



There are often serious objections to extensive forest-planting on soils capa- 

 ble of being otherwise made productive, but they do not apply to sand wastes, 

 which, until covered by woods, are not only a useless incumbrance, but a 

 source of serious danger to all human improvements in the neighborhood ol 

 them. 



•)• Krause, speaking of the dimes on the coast of Prussia, says : " Their 

 origin belongs to three different periods, in which important changes in the 

 relative level of sea and land have unquestionably taken place Except 



