192 ON ALLUVIAL FORMATIONS. 



scribes the alluvial formations that cover and bound 

 many of the islands in the Baltic and upon the coast of 

 Denmark, and gives so interesting an account of the 

 modes followed by the inhabitants in preserving these 

 alluvial deposites, that we feel pleasure in communi- 

 cating it to our readers. 



During my stay at Husum, I had the advantage of pas- 

 sing my evenings very agreeably and profitably at the 

 house of M. Hartz, with his own family, and two Danish 

 officers, Major Behmann, commandant at Husum, and 

 Captain Baron de Barackow. The conversation often 

 turned on the objects of my excursions, and particularly 

 on the natural history of the coasts and of the islands ; re- 

 specting which M. Hartz obligingly undertook to give 

 me extracts from the chronicles of the country. This 

 led us to speak of the Danish islands; and those officers 

 giving me such descriptions of them as were very inte- 

 resting to my object, I begged their permission to write 

 down in their presence the principal circumstances 

 which they communicated to me. These will form the 

 first addition to my own observations ; I shall afterwards 

 proceed to the information which I obtained from M. 

 Hartz. 



The two principal islands of the Danish Archipelago, 

 those of Funen and Seeland (or Zeland), as well as some 

 small islands in the Kattegate, namely, Lenoe, Anholt, 

 and Samsoe, are hilly, and principally composed ofgeest;* 

 and in these are found gravel and blocks of granite, and of 



* By geest is understood the alluvial matter which is spread over the 

 surface both of the hilly and low country, and appears to have been 

 formed the last time the waters of the ocean stood over the surface of 

 the earth. J. 



