The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

48 SCANDINAVIA.the centre of a vast empire had it enjoyed more geographical cohesion and moreample proportions. But the narrow peninsula of Jylland, covered with forestsand unproductive tracts, the scattered isles of the Baltic, and the Norwegian seaboard,destitute of any arable lands and broken up by fiords into countless distinctfragments, did not possess a sufficient nucleus to keep together the foreignconquests, which consequently remained without cohesion or any common bondof union, like the region itself whence the conquering hosts had issued.Denmark had formerly at least the advantage of commanding all the Balticchannels and the approach to that inland sea ; but this strategical privilege nolonger exists. One side only of the Sound belongs to her, the southern entranceto the Little Belt being occupied by Prussia, while the Great Belt might easily be19. Hills west of Astig Bay.Scale 1 • 123,000. ~du.ri#ac~ r^mo-- aforced by a hostile fleet. But whatever be their destiny, the Banes are anenergetic people, with their own laws, language, traditions, aspirations, andnational sentiments.The Peninsula of Jylland (Jutland).Like the Danish islands in the Baltic, the peninsula of Jylland belongs geologicallyto Germany and Scandinavia. The southern portion, strewn withinnumerable fragments of erratic boulders, forms a continuation of the NorthGerman lowlands. But in the broadest part occur older formations, miocene andcretaceous strata, the latter continued between Aarhus and Banders-fiord to thesouth-east corner of Sjalland (Zealand), and thence beyond the Sound to theextreme headlands of Scania.North of the German frontier the backbone of the peninsula continues tofollow the east coast, and the rivers of Jylland, flowing east and west to the