130 MODERN FOEEST ECONOMY. 



On the way from Kahlberg over the dunes to the sea- 

 strand, for example, we pass by the side of the forest which 

 formerly extended over the whole Nehrung. Between 

 this, and the place where the buried village of Schmerg- 

 ruhe lay, are to be seen a number of stumps of Scotch 

 fir, the trees of which have unmistakably beeu cut down 

 by the hand of man. The felling took place in the course 

 of the 17th and 18th centuries, and was accompanied by 

 the covering up of Schmergruhe. From these stumps the 

 wooden material has entirely disappeared, and as a rule this 

 has in the roots been replaced by white sand, which 

 exhibits all the texture of the earlier wood. The bark 

 has, however, ia all cases been well preserved, and is only 

 of a dark, blackish-brown colour, as if it had been made 

 into charcoal ; and it forms still an enclosing vessel for 

 tliese wonderful contents. The small remains of wood 

 found there is also quite like fossilised wood. 



