50 



SCANDINAVIA. 



Fig. 21. — Fkom Rixgkjôbing to Aggek, 



BEFORE 18G3. 



Scale 1 : 1,440,000. 



West of the Kattegat Hills rises the culminating point of Denmark, with the 

 Ejersbavsnehoj, 600 feet high. Better known, though 30 feet lower, is the Him- 



melbjerg ("Heaven's Mount"), commanding 

 on the north-west a magnificent view of the 

 surrounding district. At its southern foot are 

 two large lakes formed by the Guden Aa, the 

 most copious stream in the country, and beyond 

 them stretches a vast prospect of pastures, 

 woodlands, and cultivated tract?, lakes, and 

 hamlets, limited in the distance by the curved 

 coast-line. 



Beyond the Lira -fiord the land again rises 

 in hills, forming the so-called jT/ske Ans, or 

 " Back of Jylland," reaching a height of 400 

 feet, and, like all summits of the peninsula as 

 far as Trave, situated much nearer to the Baltic 

 than the ocean. 



The western section of Jylland, formerly a 

 vast sandy plain sloping gently seawards, has 

 been largely brought under cultivation, espe- 

 cially near the streams. But there are still 

 vast unreclaimed tracts resembling the North 

 German gecst, the heiden of the Drenthe and 

 Yeluwe, and the French landes — allowing, of 

 course, for differences of climate and flora. 

 The dunes on the coast also resemble those of 

 Gascony, only they are much less shifting and 

 lower, the highest beiiig no more than 110 feet 

 above sea-level. 



In the outline of its coast Jylland also re- 

 sembles the French landes. For a distance of 

 225 miles the shores of the North Sea are formed, 

 not indeed of a uniform straight line, such as 

 that stretching from Biarritz to the mouth 

 of the Gironde, but of a series of lines slightly 

 inflected, with points of resistance at definite 

 intervals, each segment describing a clear geo- 

 metrical curve, as if the limits of the ocean 

 waves had been traced by the compass. But 

 inland from these regular arcs the older and 

 less uniform coast-line may still be followed. 

 Here also, as along the landes, the old inlets of the sea have been converted into 

 lagoons, which the rain and streams have changed into fresh-water reservoirs, 

 and w^hich the alluvium is gradually filling up. They are very shallow, and 



Over 

 27 Fathoms. 



20 Miles. 



