Heath of Lueneberg. 



23: 



The only human beings seen in this detour of several miles 

 were a woman and a boy gathering Preiselbeeren among the 

 six or seven tombs, and a mapless wheelman who inquired the 

 direction of the "Seven Stone Houses," as the graves are called. 



Presently we found ourselves on a fine smooth road, stretch- 

 ing away between lines of white birches, toward Fallingbostel. 

 Passing more and more cultivated land and several villages, we 

 at last reached the interesting little town, with its red roofs re- 

 flected, together with the green of meadows and of waving trees, 

 in the tiny river upon which it stands. Inquiry from the station 

 mistress brought out the information that a train for Hamburg 

 was due in a short time — also that this same woman had a son 

 living in far-away Chicago and that she knew much of American 

 conditions. 



West of Hamburg another visit was made to the Heide. 

 At Cuxhaven, where the southern margin of the Elbe joins the 

 shore of the German Ocean, are bathing resorts and much forti- 

 fication. Heavily constructed concrete bomb-proofs shelter 

 great guns which command the seaward approach to Germany's 

 greatest port. South of the point the seashore has a broad, 

 sandy beach, flanked to landward by low and broken dunes. 

 Here the heath extends quite to the beach, Calluna being the 

 main plant upon the dunes, torn and deformed by the wind and 

 often brought to its death by the removal of sand in the wind 

 cuts. 



On the inland road back to Cuxhaven, the walker notices 

 several powder magazines or the like, surrounded by numerous 

 and repeated barb-wire fences and other ingenious stockades, 

 and further protected by word of print in the form of placards 

 which point out the danger of loitering here and forbid the use 

 of camera or pencil in the neighborhood. 



Ecologically, this shore has much in common with the south 

 shore of Long Island, the plant species, of course, being different 

 but the general aspect much the same. It is a moist, wind-swept, 

 yet almost desert area, probably mainly made arid by a too- 

 well drained soil and a short growing season 

 Desert Laboratory, June 25, 1909 



