312. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 
of woods on upland or lowland it consists of Scotch-pine. Some-. 
times it is in straight and thrifty condition, but mostly crooked 
and stunted in nature. There is lacking that variety which one 
meets with even in the Jersey pine regions, and while there 
exists a general resemblance between the two regions, closer 
examination soon shows that in reality they are very unlike. 
The soil, the climate, the flora, the political, social and economi- 
cal conditions are all so different that it would be unfair to 
place the Jersey pine-lands in the same category with these 
immense tracts of heath and morass which exist throughout 
Northern Europe. 
We should not always assume, however, that because a soil is 
sandy vegetation will suffer from dryness more than on other 
soils. This depends altogether on the capillarity * of the soil 
and the proximity of the water-table to the surface. Owing to 
the cold and a great abundance of moisture peat accumulates in 
immense beds in Northern Europe. Just to the west of the Ems 
is the Bourtanger Moor, over five hundred square miles in area, 
on the boundary between Holland and Germany. Here and 
there in this morass are firm patches on which the houses of the 
natives are located, but the most of it is a quaking, treacherous 
mass of semi-decomposed vegetable matter. The inhabitants 
crossed this bog-land with leaping-poles. A board was attached. 
to the end of each pole and both people and horses wore wooden 
““mud-shoes,” such as are used on the oyster-beds of France and 
on the salt marshes of New Jersey. These moors were often so 
extensive that they served to separate tribes. 
The surface of these moorlands was burnt at certain times of 
the year in order to render them fit for cultivation. The peat- 
smoke or “moor-rauch,” in May, 1857, drifted as far as Vienna, 
and in July, 1863, to Geneva. In recent times more economical 
methods have been practiced, and canals have been dug for both 
drainage and transportation purposes. Wherever the land is 
imperfectly drained in this region, immense masses of “‘ torf” or 
*In the sand-hills of Nebraska and Kansas, even after long periods ot drought, only the few inches. 
of surface-soil become dry. A short distance under the surface the soil is moist to the touch. 
«In the dunes of Algeria water is so abundant that wells are constantly dug in them at high points 
on their surface. They are sunk at a depth of three or four meters only, and the water rises in them to a 
height of a meter.’’—Laurent, Memoive sur le Sahara, ‘*The Dunes of the Sahara in some places 
supply pasturage for the caravans.””—Pomel, L’ Annee Geographic. 
The city of Amsterdam is supplied with water from the Coast Dunes of Holland, This is simply 
rainwater, which soaks into the sand. The Hague also is similarly supplied. 
