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SAND-BANKS OF THE BALTIC. 16g
to promontory, and, not even allowing itself to be arrested by the mouths
of the rivers, stretches across the outlets in dangerous bars.
Thus the indented coasts of North Carolina, and the ramified gulfs
which cut into these peninsulas, and are prolonged even into the interior
of the land in the form of marshes, are masked on the side next the sea
by a natural bank nearly 220 miles long, against which the most fearful
waves of the northern Atlantic break. These banks so gracefully curved
are not constructed by the sea alone. They are due also to the pressure
of the fresh waters brought from the Alleghanies by the Neuse, the Tar,
the Roanoke, and other rivers ;* the direction of the breakwaters indicates
precisely the line of equilibrium between the marine and fluvial waters.
Within the outer coast-line it has been possible, without any considerable
artificial means, to put the whole series of interior lagunes in communication with one another, and thus to allow ships to make long sea-voyages
completely sheltered from storms. Even the marigots of Guinea, which
spread parallel to the shore, have at all times served to facilitate traffic
between the peoples of the coast; but it is said that these marshy canals
are gradually being filled up, either by the .activity of the vegetation, or
because of the sand which the wind of the desert transports thither.f
Much less extensive than the banks of the Gulf of Mexico and of Carolina, those of the Eastern Baltic are not less curious by the geometrical
regularity of their forms, and, besides, they have been the object of long
and serious study. Three great rivers—the Oder, the Vistula, and the
Niemen—discharge themselves each into a vast lagune, or Haff (hafen,
port), which a narrow tongue of land, called there a Nehrung, separates
from the open sea. The haff of the Oder, the entrance to which is guarded by the town of Swinemiinde, is already in great part filled up by mud.
The Curiche Haff, or haff of Courlande, is much freer from alluvium, and
the Nehrung which defends it is a narrow sand-bank about sixty-eight
miles in length. The central haff, known under the name of the F)-ische
Haff, is protected by a bank similar to that of Courlande, but still more
regular. All the western part of the estuary has already been filled up
by the alluvium of the Vistula, the waters of which have opened a way
through the bank. This embouchure has often changed its place. Till
the fourteenth century it was to the north of the present passage, near
Lochstadt (town of the gap, or grau). Later it opened at Rosenberg,
nearly in the middle of the dike. To preserve their commercial monopoly, the merchants of Dantzic filled this opening up by sinking five ships
there; but another passage was formed almost immediately at a little distance toward the north, near the castle of Balga. More greed}' than wise,
the Dantzicers again attempted to arrest the waters of the Vistula, and
closed the passage of Balga. It was then that the Nehrung was broken
before Pillau. Since this period the passage has not been sensibly displaced, and Pillau has always remained the port of the Frische Haff.
* See the section entitled Rivers.
Borghero, Bulletin de la Societe Geographie, July, 1866.
| Title | The ocean, atmosphere, and life |
| Creator | Reclus, Elisée |
| Publisher | Harper |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1873 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000190 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | SAND-BANKS OF THE BALTIC. 16g to promontory, and, not even allowing itself to be arrested by the mouths of the rivers, stretches across the outlets in dangerous bars. Thus the indented coasts of North Carolina, and the ramified gulfs which cut into these peninsulas, and are prolonged even into the interior of the land in the form of marshes, are masked on the side next the sea by a natural bank nearly 220 miles long, against which the most fearful waves of the northern Atlantic break. These banks so gracefully curved are not constructed by the sea alone. They are due also to the pressure of the fresh waters brought from the Alleghanies by the Neuse, the Tar, the Roanoke, and other rivers ;* the direction of the breakwaters indicates precisely the line of equilibrium between the marine and fluvial waters. Within the outer coast-line it has been possible, without any considerable artificial means, to put the whole series of interior lagunes in communication with one another, and thus to allow ships to make long sea-voyages completely sheltered from storms. Even the marigots of Guinea, which spread parallel to the shore, have at all times served to facilitate traffic between the peoples of the coast; but it is said that these marshy canals are gradually being filled up, either by the .activity of the vegetation, or because of the sand which the wind of the desert transports thither.f Much less extensive than the banks of the Gulf of Mexico and of Carolina, those of the Eastern Baltic are not less curious by the geometrical regularity of their forms, and, besides, they have been the object of long and serious study. Three great rivers—the Oder, the Vistula, and the Niemen—discharge themselves each into a vast lagune, or Haff (hafen, port), which a narrow tongue of land, called there a Nehrung, separates from the open sea. The haff of the Oder, the entrance to which is guarded by the town of Swinemiinde, is already in great part filled up by mud. The Curiche Haff, or haff of Courlande, is much freer from alluvium, and the Nehrung which defends it is a narrow sand-bank about sixty-eight miles in length. The central haff, known under the name of the F)-ische Haff, is protected by a bank similar to that of Courlande, but still more regular. All the western part of the estuary has already been filled up by the alluvium of the Vistula, the waters of which have opened a way through the bank. This embouchure has often changed its place. Till the fourteenth century it was to the north of the present passage, near Lochstadt (town of the gap, or grau). Later it opened at Rosenberg, nearly in the middle of the dike. To preserve their commercial monopoly, the merchants of Dantzic filled this opening up by sinking five ships there; but another passage was formed almost immediately at a little distance toward the north, near the castle of Balga. More greed}' than wise, the Dantzicers again attempted to arrest the waters of the Vistula, and closed the passage of Balga. It was then that the Nehrung was broken before Pillau. Since this period the passage has not been sensibly displaced, and Pillau has always remained the port of the Frische Haff. * See the section entitled Rivers. Borghero, Bulletin de la Societe Geographie, July, 1866. |
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