PLAINS OF THE ELBE, ODER, AND VISTULA. 



313 



has been dried by the summer sun, a musical sound is produced, a pbenomenon 

 also observed in the French Landes, on Mount Sinai, and elsewhere. 



Nowhere else can the great effects of the erosive action of water be traced 

 more satisfactorily than in the littoral district which includes the Fischland of 

 Mecklenburg, the peninsula of the Darss, and the island of Riigen. We perceive 

 at once that the island was formerly a portion of the mainland, and that the 

 narrow tongues which now separate the higoons to the west of the Gut of Stral- 



Fig. 180. — The Dakss and the Lagoons of Barth. 

 Scale 1 : 300,000. 



Dcjilh uitdtr .; faihotiis 

 iifj rpartly carrUclawiiy liy JnimlMm) 



Depth over i Fat/ionis 



H "Ciirj;:4r«.Jit (hrear)n': I 



Extent of J nuiidatiim 13 Nov rs?3 

 ^rlifaal Dunea on Piles. 



sund from the sea are the remains of an ancient coast-line. The eastern coast of 

 Riigen resists successfully the onslaught of the waves, for its cliffs are protected 

 by mounds of débris ; but in the west there are no such protecting barriers, and 

 the Darss would long ere this have disappeared beneath the waves, had not 

 embankments been constructed in its defence. The inhabitants of Riigen are well 

 aware that their island melts away beneath their feet. Their traditions tell of 

 great floods which tore it asunder from the mainland, and cut it up into a number 

 of peninsulas, connected only by fragile strips of sand with its main portion. 

 94 



