274 GEEMANY. 



these dreary districts, and the aspect of the country is rapidly changing. It was 

 in this way that the " Devil's Morass," to the east of Bremen, was reclaimed. 

 Similar success has attended the work of reclamation in the morasses to the east 

 of the Ems. Papenburg, which formerly consisted only of a ruined tower, has 

 become a flourishing town, surrounded by gardens, fields, and meadows, extending 

 for several miles along a navigable canal. 



Below these morasses lies the region known as the Geest, or Gast, the soil of 

 which consists for the most part of thick layers of sand mixed with clay marl. 

 The Geest has an uneven surface, and to an inhabitant of the coast or the morasses 

 its elevations almost assume the appearance of mountains. Its depressions are 

 filled with peat. Where rivers have scooped themselves out broad valleys by 

 carrvinf away the sand, the exposed clay and marl yield remunerative harvests. 

 Elsewhere the soil is loamy, but there are also extensive tracts of sand, which the 

 wind has piled up into drifting dunes, and which produce only furze. In many 

 instances these dunes have been planted with pines. 



The Heath of Liineburg, to the east of the plain of Hanover, is an eastern 

 extension of the Geest, though never referred to by that designation. It is one of 

 the least picturesque countries of Germany, although flowers, clumps of trees, 

 ravines, and an unbounded horizon render it more attractive than would be 

 imagined from the ironical remarks made respecting it. Villages are few and far 

 apart in this sterile tract, of which shepherds in charge of vast herds of small black 

 sheep, known as Meideschnuclccu, hold undisputed possession. Attempts to cultivate 

 the heath have hitherto failed, owing to a want of water, and only a little buckwheat 

 is grown upon it. Still forests are being planted, and agricultural settlements 

 have been formed. Birches, oaks, and beech-trees grow luxuriantly in the bottom- 

 lands, and a time when the herds of native sheep will be displaced can be foreseen. 



Erratic blocks derived from the glaciers of Scandinavia abound on the plateau 

 of -Liineburg, on the Hiimmling, and throughout the plain irrigated by the Ems 

 and Weser. Some of these blocks have even found their way through the gaps in 

 the advanced chains of Central Germiany, as far as the foot of the Thuringian 

 Forest. The Kyffhauser is surrounded by them, and from the Harz they can 

 be traced to the plain of the Lippe and Euhr, and even across the Rhine as far 

 as Crefeld. This abundance of stones enabled the ancient inhabitants of the 

 country to raise numerous cromlechs and other structures of the kind. On a ridge 

 near the mouth of the Weser may still be seen a cromlech the covering stones 

 of which weigh 100 tons each. Most of these ancient monuments have disap- 

 peared, for the Hanoverians sell them to the Dutch, who use the boulders in the 

 construction of their embankments. 



The LinoKAL Region. 



The profile of the coast of Norihern Germany has undergone many changes 

 even during the short period which has elapsed since the Romans invaded the 

 country. The coast of all Hanover has been gnawed by the ocean, which in 



