460 Sir E. H. Ho^coHli—The Western Baltic. 



which once evidently flourished in the Odense fiord are some which 

 can no longer live in the southern part of the Cattegat. Among 

 these he specially mentions Ostrea edidis, Cardium exiguum (the 

 typical form), Tapes deciissatus, T. pidlastra, and T. aureus. 



The oyster, which once apparently lived as far south as the Ekern- 

 fiord, no longer lives south of a line from Anholt to the Horsens 

 fiord. On the Swedish coast it does not occur living south of 

 Marstrand. On the Jutland side, while it occurs, but not abundantly, 

 at Skagen, it flourishes in the western part of the Lim fiord. 



The former occurrence of the oyster in great banks where it must 

 have greatly thrived, where it will no longer live, was further 

 confirmed by the examination of the so-called kitchen middens, 

 which contain an abundance of oysters and whose distribution is 

 very interesting. They are not found in the interior fiords and 

 channels and the belts between the islands, but are almost entirely 

 limited to the shores of the Cattegat and the Limfiord. Thus, 

 writing iu 1867, Valdemar Schmidt says that more than a hundred 

 kitchen middens were then known, nearly all of them on the shores 

 of the Cattegat and the Limfiord. The west coast of Jutland and 

 Schleswig have none of these deposits, showing how they have 

 been worn away by the sea. The greater part of those occurring 

 in Zealand are found on the borders of the Eoeskilde fiord and 

 the other branches of the Ise Fiord, thus at Kattingevek, 

 at Bregnebierg, at Herlevspynt, at Bilidt, at Gjevningepyut, at 

 Gierdrup, at Soelayei", at Havelse, and quite near to Eoeskilde, 

 at the bottom of the fiord at Bierget, at Haraldsborg, at Bogenas, 

 and at Askhoved. 



On the Limfiord there is one near the town of Aalborg, on the 

 Signalbakke, which rises 60 metres above the sea-level, others at the 

 Oesterbakker (oyster hills), at Roerdal, Eestrup, and Gudumlund. 



Further towards the south there is one on the north shore of the 

 Mariagerfiord, another at Visborg, 500 metres long, others at 

 Subaken, Hadsund, Eejjshaek, etc. ; while the south shore of the 

 fiord presents others over an extent of 10 kilometres. We then 

 come to the deposits at Meilgard, at Kolindsund, now a lake, but 

 once an arm of the sea, Kaloe, etc., etc. In the Horsens fiord we 

 meet with a mass of oysters at the bottom of the bay called 

 Norrestrand ; at Boiler we find remains of mussels and cockles. 

 The Veile fiord presents several deposits, such as that at Bredhalla. 

 The northern coast of Fuen also has its kitchen middens. Schmidt 

 says that sometimes, as at Gudumlund, which is 10 kilometres from 

 the sea, we find such a kitchen midden, but he says in such cases 

 they were planted on an arm of the sea which has been lost by 

 elevation. He says further that in Central and South Denmark 

 kitchen middens were partially inundated by the sea, e.g. one used 

 to exist at Viele. 



The presence of the oyster here of full size was long ago 

 commented upon. Thus Lyell says : " Ostrcea edidis cannot live 

 at present in the brackish waters of the Baltic [he ought to have 

 said the Southern Cattegat] except near its entrance, where. 



