Vol. 57.] DRIFTS OF THE BALTIC COAST OF GERMANY. 3 



illustrations of its most remarkable sections ; but, as the work is not 

 likely to be generally known, and the only reference to the Warne- 

 miinde Drift which we have come across in our own language is 

 liable to be misunderstood, we offer to the Society the results of our 

 examination. In so doing we shall endeavour to avoid theories and 

 describe facts, referring only to the former so far as to point out 

 what is demanded by the latter; for we think that if this plan were 

 more generally followed, better progress would be made in solving 

 the problems presented by the Drifts of iSTorthern Europe. 



Warnemiinde, the port of Hostock and a watering-place on the 

 Baltic, is on the western bank of the mouth of the War now. The 

 river on the other side expands into a broad sheet of water, separated 

 from the sea by a peninsular lowland. Beyond it the ground rises 

 a little, but as careful searching with good field-glasses was un- 

 promising, and it is mapped as dunes, we left this without further 

 examination, and confined our attention to the other bank of the 

 Warnow, where we studied the coast between Warnemiinde and 

 Heiligendamm, a distance of about 10 miles as the crow flies. This, 

 however, for a considerable extent at each end, is without interest, 

 as a line of very low flattened dunes separates the Baltic from an 

 almost equally level alluvial plain. But in the middle is a gently 

 undulating tract rising from this plain to a maximum elevation of 

 slightly over 60 feet, which is scarped by the waves into clifts. 

 These extend along the shore for nearly 2 leagues, and usually 

 afford very fair sections of the glacial deposits, which, however, are 

 generally uniform in character : all the more interesting occurring 

 along about 1^ miles of the coast, and commencing rather more 

 than that distance from Warnemiinde. 



The results of our examination, we think, will be more readily 

 understood if we begin our description at Heiligendamm, so as to 

 work from west to east. 



Por some 2 miles east of this place the coast, as intimated, is low, 

 but there is higher ground to the west, which, however, we did not 

 visit as it gave no promise of clear sections. Beyond the dunes 

 the ground gradually rises, forming a cliff which, for a considerable 

 distance, ranges from 2 to 3 yards in height, and consists of a strong, 

 stony, brownish-grey clay. The cliff dies away towards an opening, 

 on the other side of which it again rises, attains a greater elevation, 

 often 4 or 5 yards, and occasionally about twice as much. Here 

 the lower part consists of a clay, not quite identical with that 

 already mentioned. Over it comes a rather sandy band, often only 

 4 or 5 inches thick, and then a clay, such as we have already seen, 

 which passes up into a sandy soil from 18 inches to 2 feet thick. 

 We will call these clays, for the purpose of reference, the lower 

 and the upper. 



The former is grey, and contains the following materials : — 

 (c<) Chalk: much of it being in small grains,, from the size of a 

 mustard-seed downward ; these often are about as common in the 

 matrix as carraway-seeds in a cake. The rock also occurs in pebbles, 



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