SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I93I 29 



just completing a very handsome and efficiently arranged building to 

 house the magnificent collections made since Poland obtained its inde- 

 pendence. It is astonishing to note how much scientific progress these 

 eastern countries have made in recent years. 



The Jewish villages in central Poland differ from the Polish towns, 

 in lacking farmers. It is difficult to see how these people, often in 

 very unproductive surroundings, are able to make a living without 

 farming and manufacture, but our guides told us that thev subsist 

 solely on trade. 



Leaving Warsaw, where our party disbanded, I stopped next at 

 Dorpat, the university town of Esthonia, and after looking over the 

 collections at the university took a train to Tallinn, the city we 

 knew as Reval. This beautiful city was founded by the Danes many 

 centuries ago and the old walls still stand nearly intact. Since more 

 peaceful days have come to Europe, houses have been built against 

 the walls and of course the city has grown far beyond them. It is 

 the intention to restore the walls and remove the houses built against 

 them. 



From the vicinity of Tallinn, the Baltic shores stretching away to 

 Russia are peculiarly attractive to the geologist, for here the Cam- 

 brian or other old sediments are still unconsolidated and the millions 

 of shells which make up some of the layers still retain much of their 

 original nacre. Elsewhere in the world all of these strata are hardened 

 and often buried under tremendous masses of younger sediments, from 

 which fact we draw the conclusion that this region must have had 

 approximately its present day aspect for hundreds of millions of 

 years. Because the shells in these beds have been so little altered they 

 are quarried for the manufacture of phosphate — in fact they are 

 often used directly on the land. During the war the Russian govern- 

 ment undertook to make Tallinn its chief naval base in the Baltic 

 and consequently erected large shipbuilding docks which of course 

 today are standing idle, the machinery rusting away. But — more im- 

 portant to the geologist— they also began land fortifications, draw- 

 ing three circles around the city, the outer one being 12 kilometers 

 out. As the country is low-lying and the rainfall considerable, much 

 drainage had to be undertaken, so that besides the diggings for the 

 fortifications themselves, long drainage tunnels had to be constructed, 

 one of which is shown in Figure 27. The result of this work was the 

 opening of fine exposures in these soft sediments which could have 

 been brought about in no other way. Because these sediments are 

 soft it will be only a few years until the excavations slump, again 

 concealing the sediments and therefore I had rather extensive 

 collections sent to the National Museum. 



