PROTECTION OF DUNES. 569 



and its leaves protect tlieir surface. "WTien tlie sand ceases to 

 drift, the arundo dies, its decaying roots fertilizing the sand, 

 and the decomposition of its leaves forming a layer of vege- 

 table earth over it. Then follows a succession of other plants 

 which gradually fit the sand-hills, by growth and decay, for 

 forest planting, for pasturage, and sometimes for ordinary agri- 

 cultural use. 



But the protection and gradual transformation of the dunes is 

 not the only service rendered by this valuable plant. Its leaves are 

 nutritious food for sheep and cattle, its seeds for poultry ; * cord- 

 age and netting twine are manufactured from its fibres, it makes 

 a good material for thatching, and its dried roots furnish excellent 

 fuel. These useful qualities, unfortunately, are too often pre- 

 judicial to its growth. The peasants feed it down with their 

 cattle, cut it for rope-making, or dig it up for fuel, and it has 

 been found necessary to resort to severe legislation to prevent 

 them from bringing ruin upon themselves by thus improvidently 

 sacrificing their most effectual safeguard against the drifting of 

 the sands.f 



In 1539 a decree of Christian III., king of Denmark, imposed 

 a fine upon persons convicted of destroying certain species of 

 sand-plants upon the west coast of Jutland. This ordinance was 

 renewed and made more comprehensive in 1558, and in 1569 the 

 inhabitants of several districts were required, by royal rescript, 

 to do their best to check the sand-drifts, though the specific 

 measures to be adopted for that purpose are not indicated. 

 Various laws against stripping the dunes of their vegetation were 

 enacted in the following century, but no active measures were 

 taken for the subjugation of the sand-drifts until 1YY9, when a 

 preliminary system of operation for that purpose was adopted. 

 This consisted in little more than the planting of the Arimdo 

 arena/ria and other sand-plants, and the exclusion of animals de- 

 structive to these vegetables. :{: Ten years later, plantations of 



* Bread, not indeed very palatable, has been made of the seeds of the 

 arundo, but the quantity which can be gathered is not sufScient to form an 

 important economical resource. — Andkesen, Om Klitformationen, p. 160. 



f BergsOe, Eeventlovs VirksomJied, ii., p. 4, 



X Measures were taken for the protection of the dunes of Cape Cod, in 

 Massachusetts, during the colonial period, though I believe they are now sub- 



