CONTINENTAL NOTES — GERMANY. 189 



the general aflforestation scheme in the north-east of Prussia ; 

 and one of the most interesting of the numerous works carried 

 out in this direction is probably the reclamation of the wind- 

 and sand-swept land-tongue (known as the " Frische Nehrung") 

 which separates the Baltic from the bay to the east of Dantzig. 



At one time the whole of this peninsula, about fifty miles 

 long, was covered with a mixed forest, and contained several 

 flourishing villages. Its disforestation began during the Thirty 

 Years' War, and was completed in the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century. Dunes took the place of the forest, and all life was 

 gradually covered by moving sands, which have encroached on 

 the bay itself at the rate of some 12 feet per annum, threaten- 

 ing the very existence of this important waterway. Towards the 

 end of last century the State bought the " Frische Nehrung " from 

 its former owners, the town of Dantzig, who all this time had done 

 practically nothing to mend matters, and in 1890 a beginning 

 was made with a systematic reclamation of the peninsula, both 

 from the sea and bay side. Numerous stone spurs were built 

 on the inner side, and plantations of willows and reeds were 

 established between them. An alluvium is rapidly forming, and 

 was some 20 feet broad in 1906. 



The defence on the sea-side was begun with the establishment 

 of an outer dune, a protection wall preventing the waves from 

 reaching the foot of the natural dunes. Several parallel lines 

 of bushy hurdles, with intervals of some 6 feet between them, 

 were firmly planted in a continuous stretch about 100 feet from 

 the foot of the natural dune formation. These intervals soon 

 sanded up, and the sand -wall thus formed was again sur- 

 mounted by further parallel lines of hurdles, which raised the 

 wall in a very short time to the desired height. 



The work was started in early spring and continued to 

 autumn, when the wall was planted with Ammophila arundinacea 

 and Elynius arenarius. The establishment and fixation of such 

 an outwork takes two years. 



When protection was thus secured against any fresh attacks 

 from the rear, the treatment of the moving dunes was started. 

 The head of these dunes was levelled down, and the sand 

 smoothed to a certain extent, and protected against the wind 

 by a network of fir branches stuck into the ground. In autumn 

 plant-holes were made 3 feet apart, and filled with dredgings from 

 the bay, a loamy silt, rich in humus. It is indispensable that 



