650 



DENMAR K. 



Sutistics. oyster-banks still more valuable, which belong to the 

 v — -y— • crown, and the formation of which is ascribed to Ca- 

 nute the Great. These banks are sometimes half a 

 mile in length, and 14 feet under the water. The pro- 

 duce of this fishery, which is let to a merchant of Toen- 

 dern for 75,000 dollars payable per advance, is sold in 

 the provinces of Denmark and the North of Germa- 

 ny. The superior quality of these oysters is ascribed 

 to the fresh waters, which, in spring, are let into the 

 sea through the sluices and the canals. The lakes, the 

 rivers, and ponds, contain pike, perches, carp, eels, and 

 cray-fish. The fisheries of Gessenfield owe their ori- 

 gin to Peter Oxen, who brought the first carp from 

 France in the end of the sixteenth century, and recom- 

 mended the propagation of this fish in the fresh waters 

 of Denmark. Most of the large estates, particularly in 

 Holstein, have ponds, some of which will produce 800 

 rix dollars per annum. Many of these fisheries also be- 

 long to the king, some of which are let, and others ma- 

 naged on his account. All these fresh water fisheries 

 might be improved and rendered of much greater value. 

 Minerals. Although Denmark contains none of the primitive 

 or transition rocks, and but few of the fla:tz series, and 

 is almost entirely destitute of the more beautiful and 

 striking minerals, still its mineralogy is by no means 

 uninteresting. 



The basis or fundamental rock of Jutland, Sleswick, 

 Holstein, Zealand, Laland, Falster, &c. appears to be 

 sandstone ; on it rests chalk, which varies in hard- 

 ness, contains flint, and also numerous petrifactions : 

 the chalk is covered with, or contains beds of gypsum, 

 which sometimes forms considerable eminences, as at 

 Segeberg, near Kiel. These are all the flaetz rocks 

 hitherto observed in Denmark, (with the exception of 

 Bornholm, afterwards to be mentioned). They occur 

 but seldom at the surface, owing to the universal and 

 frequent deep cover of alluvial strata. The most stri- 

 king sections are on the sea coast ; and of these the 

 most remarkable is that of Stevensklint, in Zealand. 

 Immediately over the chalk rests a remarkable bed of 

 marl, from a few feet to upwards of seventy feet thick : 

 it contains fragments of chalk, and abundance of loose 

 masses of flint. It is covered with a bed of loam, and 

 there is observed an uninterrupted transition from the 

 loam into the subjacent marl ; and both of these beds 

 appear to have been formed from the chalk. Super- 

 imposed on the loam is a vast bed of sand, which is 

 sometimes in the state of blowing sand, and is then 

 very destructive to the labours of man, or is more or 

 less aggregated together by means of clay or marl, so 

 as to form a kind of sandstone. In some places we ob- 

 serve beds of this sandstone alternating with a peat, 

 which is uncommonly like coal. The sand is cover- 

 ed or intermixed with boulders, or rolled stones of dif- 

 ferent kinds, as of granite, gneiss, sienite, porphyry, 

 &c. which, from their nature and their connection with 

 the subjacent alluvial matters, appear to have been 

 transported from the mountains and hills of Scandi- 

 navia and Germany, by that commotion of the water 

 which opened a communication between the Baltic and 

 the North Sea. This sand is more or less extensive- 

 ly and deeply covered with peat, which is the prin- 

 cipal fuel of these countries ; and sometimes the peat is 

 associated with bog-iron ore. 



The minerals of Denmark, in an economical point of 

 view, are not of very great importance. Coal, that 

 most useful mineral, occurs but in small quantity, and, 

 as far as we know, only in the island of Bornholm. 

 Peat, as we have already remarked, is the principal 

 kind of fuel; and some varieties of it are so bitumi- 

 nous, that the peasants make use of it instead of can- 



Forests. 



die. Amber is found, along with brown coal, in the Statistics 

 island of Bornholm ; also floating on the coasts of Zea- """"V*" 

 land, and other islands in the Baltic. The island of 

 Bornholm also furnishes good porcelain earth, excel- 

 lent buildin'g stones, and also small but beautiful trans- 

 parent rock crystals, which are situated in a variety of 

 marl ; and a kind of limestone, which is considered as 

 of the nature of marble. Near Kiel, in Holstein, there 

 are gypsum quarries, which have been worked for a 

 long series of years. Those of Segeberg, which belong 

 to the king, employ about seventy individuals, and from 

 1 773 to 1 793 yielded a profit of 1 , 1 92,35 1 dollars. The 

 salt springs in the neighbourhood of Oldesloe have been 

 known since the twelfth century. The water is raised 

 by means of mills and pumps into the buildings pre- 

 pared to receive it, and the process is the same as takes 

 place in other salt works of the same nature. The 

 number of workmen employed is about forty, and the 

 quantity of salt produced is 18,000 tons annually, which 

 is more than sufficient for the consumption of the coun- 

 try. The inhabitants of Jutland procure a small quan- 

 tity of salt from sea-weed, after burning it to ashes. 



The extensive forests which at one period covered 

 almost the whole of Denmark, as was mentioned al- 

 ready, have now generally disappeared. In some dis- 

 tricts of Zealand and Funen there is a considerable 

 quantity of wood, and in Jutland there are still some 

 large forests. We also meet with extensive forests in 

 Sleswick, in the district bordering on the Baltic. The 

 trees in these forests are chiefly the oak, the beech, and 

 the ash. The city of Itzhoe in Holstein exports wood 

 to Hamburgh and Holland ; and the burgh of Elms- 

 horn in the same province carries on a lucrative trade in 

 charcoal. 



CHAP. III. 



Manufactures. 



The manufactures of Denmark are neither many, nor Manufac- 

 very important. Government has made frequent at- tures. 

 tempts to extend them; but by aiming rather at the in- 

 troduction of foreign manufactures, than at the encour- 

 agement of those suited to the country, and also by in- 

 terfering too much with individual enterprise, their 

 well meant endeavours have not been crowned with 

 all the success that was expected. It is evident, from 

 the constitution of the Danish corporations, that the 

 knowledge of the mechanical arts, and almost all the 

 different trades, have been introduced into this country, 

 or at least brought to perfection, by Germans. Indeed, 

 the greater part of the tradesmen employed in all the 

 northern states, came originally from Lubeck, Ham- 

 burgh, Bremen, and the adjacent countries ; and we 

 still meet with great numbers of these German artizans 

 in Copenhagen, and in many of the other Danish ci- 

 ties. The native tradesmen, though they exact high 

 wages, work but slowly, and have very little taste. 

 Their education is much neglected ; but an institution 

 was founded at Copenhagen in 1798, for the instruc- 

 tion of young mechanics, which may be attended with 

 considerable advantage. The vassalage of the pea- 

 sants, who can exercise no trade but by the permission 

 of their lords, and the corporation monopolies, have been 

 unfavourable to the increase and prosperity of the ma- 

 nufacturing and mechanical arts ; but several late enact- 

 ments have very considerably diminished the evils of 

 these systems. It is in Copenhagen that the greatest 

 encouragement has been given to manufactures, and the 

 chief manufactories of Denmark are in this city and its 

 environs. Some cities in Holstein and Sleswick are 

 declared free ; anxl the effect of this on their prosperi- 



