ding geological periods, the tertiary period and the cretaceous period. With the exception of the rock island of Bornholm far to the East, no older stratifications than chalk have been found in Denmark; in most places this lies deep down, although here and there it reaches to the surface, as for example on the island of Møen and at Stevns Cliffs, Mariager, and Aalborg, and a few other places, in most of which important lime and cement industries have grown up.

The glaciers of the ice period have provided Denmark with an evenly distributed surface stratum, principally consisting of the extremely fertile moraine clay, the somewhat poorer moraine sand and diluvial sand, the very finely washed stratified clay and, finally, the heath sand. The depth of the formations of the glacial period varies extraordinarily, and moreover the mode of formation has led to a contour of surface which, in the greater part of Zealand and Funen, in the whole of the Eastern portion of Jutland, and in part of Northern Jutland, is more or less undulating. It is here that Denmark's most characteristic and beautiful districts are to be found (North Zealand, Svendborg and Assens districts in Funen, Als and Sundeved, the Vejle and Silkeborg districts, as well as Vendsyssel in Jutland). Large plains are mostly to be found in West Jutland; the glacial edge is presumed to have remained for a long time along a line from South to North through Central Jutland, so that to the West of this line there are large areas covered with the deposits of the melting glaciers, consisting for the most part of poor, washed out sand. But here, too, the surface is often broken by the moraine formations of previous glacial periods, which project above the sand surface in the form of isolated hills.

With this origination the contour of the surface of the country varies greatly. There are great numbers of hills of a height of 100 to 150 metres, but very few are higher; Ejer Bavnehøj, in South-east Jutland, is the highest point in Denmark, and only attains to a height of 172 metres.

LAKES AND WATER COURSES

One meets with small lakes and water courses everywhere in Denmark, but as the coast is nowhere very distant, none of the water courses can attain any respectable size, and it was only in olden times that they played any part as

ways of communication. The longest water course in Denmark is the Gudenaa, which rises in South-east Jutland and runs through the country's one group of big lakes in the Silkeborg district; after a very winding course it finds its estuary in Randers Fjord one of the many examples of long valleys debouching into deeply indented fjords; this occurs most frequently in Jutland.

DISTRIBUTION OF AREA

Of the area of the country, lakes and ponds cover about 653 square kilometres, and water courses of more than three metres in breadth about 81 square kilometres, or in all about 734 square kilometres, so that the land area proper covers about 42,300 square kilometres. The actual distribution of productively utilized and other areas appears from the following summary:

The really productive soil, that is to say the soil under cultivation and the forest areas, thus amounts to about 94 per cent. on the islands and about 83 per cent. in Jutland of the whole land area. The bogs are exploited in the procuring of fuel (peat), whilst the heaths and dunes for the most part are unproductive.

DUNES AND HEATHS

As will be seen from the summary above, heaths and dunes are mostly to be found in Jutland. The dunes there form a continuous line along the West coast of Jutland from Blaavandshuk to the Scaw; they consist of driftsands and, in the seventeenth and eighteenth Centuries, did an exceedingly great amount of damage, at any rate in places, by drifting from the beach in over the cultivated areas. It was only about seventy years ago that the planting of these areas was completed, and the

destruction caused by the drifting sands practically ceased then. The heaths are everywhere covered with heather; during the past half century cultivation has been started on them, and gradually an area of between four and five thousand square kilometres (i. e. more than half), has been turned into forest, plantations, or even arable land.

NATURAL RESOURCES

The productive portion of the area of the country forms the principal part about 90 per cent. and of this area the agricultural portion is the most important; the latter covers 33,200 square kilometres, and is dealt with in detail later on. Compared with agriculture, the other natural resources of the country are of subordinate importance, although the following must be mentioned:

The forest area is, compared with that of most other countries, small in size, although it is growing by means of the extensions made through heath and dune plantations, which exclusively add coniferous vegetation to the forest areas. In this manner the coniferous forests or plantations have of late become the most extensive in Denmark, and now comprise one half of the whole timbered area, but owing to the young age of these plantations on the whole it is only in middle and West Jutland that they characterize the appearance of the landscape. It is thus still reasonable to call the beech the most common forest tree, although on the average it only covers a third of the timbered area; as heaths and heath-plantations are mostly found in Jutland, the difference between that part of the country and the islands is considerable. In the islands there are, in fact, two or three times as many beech-woods as coniferous woods. The oak, which was the most common forest tree some hundreds of years ago, has declined greatly in number owing to felling and to its inferiority to the beech in the struggle for sunlight. There are, however, large oak plantations now in course of growth.

As a result of the manner in which it came into being, Denmark is unusually deficient in minerals. Neither coal nor metals can be profitably mined anywhere, though coal is actually found on the island of Bornholm, and certain extensive strata of bogiron ore in Jutland are ferruginous. The bog-iron ore is now used in gas works for purifying. Common chalk, which is found almost

everywhere, is on the other hand quarried in great quantities where it lies near the surface, and is of great importance as a technical material, especially in the cement industry. The newer chalk is very suitable for and is utilized to a great extent in lime-burning, whilst the lime stone at Stevns, which also belongs to the newer chalk, is used as a building material. Of the glacier age formations the stratified clay and micaceous clay of the tertiary period, owing to their frequent occurrence, play a great part in the tile-making industry.

The calcareous deposits of clay from the various periods have, particularly in Jutland, been very widely utilized as marl in the work of improving the soil, and especially in the cultivation of the heaths. Finally it may be observed that on the island of Bornholm granite is quarried for building stone and paving stones, as well as kaolin, which is used in the china and paper industry. The seas, belts, fjords, etc. which surround Denmark, and which give the country a very long coast-line in proportion to it's size, have naturally from very early days been used by the population for fishing, partly as a principal means of livelihood and, to some extent, as a secondary occupation. As a means of livelihood, however, fishing as a secondary occupation no longer plays any great role. The most important fisheries of to-day are the modern kind, carried on with sea-going vessels.

SEAS AND COASTS

The extensive waters which surround the country, however, set their mark upon life in Denmark in another manner. Coastwise shipping has become an important link in intercourse between the people, and harbours are easy to establish in most places. This, however, does not apply to the long North Sea coast, which is almost unapproachable from the sea, and where the need of fishing ports has gradually grown great. The only harbour on the West coast is Esbjerg, which is the home of a large fleet of fishing vessels. The most northerly Cattegat harbours, the Scaw and Frederikshavn, have long had to do duty for the lack of West coast ports, but the need of these has now become so great that two such harbours have been projected and commenced, (at Hirtshals and at Hanstholm). The experience which is being brought to bear in the very difficult realization of these plans has, to a great extent, been gained from the extensive

work of protecting the coast (breakwaters) which has been necessary on most parts of the West coast. Coast protection has also been necessary in other parts of the country, especially in the form of dikes for the protection of low-lying coast areas; these are especially to be found in the islands and, where they have been in the form of embankments, large areas of land have been reclaimed.

CLIMATE

The climate of Denmark is naturally a markedly coast climate with higher average temperature than many places on the same parallel of latitude. The mean temperature for the whole of the

year lies between seven en and eight degrees centigrade; it becomes

so high mostly as a result of a comparatively mild winter. The character of a coast climate is also visible in the usually slight difference between the day and night temperatures, whereas the frequent changes in the direction of the wind, as a consequence of the proximity of the sea, can on the other hand lead to very considerable differences in temperature from day to day. Although the winds are very variable, West and South-west winds are by far the most prevalent, while calm weather for several days at a stretch is of rare occurrence. The average annual rainfall is about 600 m. m.

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As far as race is concerned, the population is very homogeneous. Immigration of foreign elements has been so low for ages that only in one or two places has it succeeded in leaving its traces upon the population. The Danish people are of the Gotho-Germanic race which has lived in the country even in prehistoric times, and their language is Danish everywhere, although there are dialects, especially Jutlandic as compared with »>Island« Danish. Denmark must be counted among the fairly well populated countries of Europe. The total number at the present time is about 3,390,000, which gives an average population per square kilometre of about 79. As far as density of population is concerned, Denmark cannot, of course, be compared with the densely populated industrial districts in other parts of Europe, such as England, Belgium, and certain parts of Germany.

There is a great variation in the density of population in the country, partly according to the role played by the town populations in the various districts and partly according to the fertility