“Voici la designation des matieres qui furent trouvees en partant de la surface.

  51 pieds, meles de sable tourbeux, de fable
  des dunes pur et d’argile ou
  limon.

  22.—–­de meme sable des dunes pur,
  et d’argile bleuatre.

  14.—–­du meme sable pur.

  87 pieds.—­Ou rien encore n’indiquoit la
  presence de la mer.

  55.—–­de sable marin, et de limon,
  meles l’un et l’autre de coquilles
  dans plusieurs couches.

  142 pieds.—­Soit la plus grande profondeur,
  ou s’est manifestee la presence
  de la mer.

49.—–­Argille dure sans melange de coquilles, soit que ce soit une couche argilleuse continentale, ou les premiers depots des fleuves; ce qu’il est difficile de Determiner.

  191 pieds.

  13.—–­Sable mele de pierres; qui est
  enfin surement le sol vierge
  continental.

28.—–­Sable pur; continental encore; car j’ai remarque partout dans la Geest, que c’est dans la couche superieure, a une petite profondeur que se trouvent les pierres; au-dessous le sable est pur.

232 pieds.—­C’est a cette profondeur, ou dans la masse de ces deux dernieres couches, que se trouva l’eau douce, et par consequent le vrai sol continental.”

The light that we have from this pit which has been made in the soil, according to my view of the subject, is this, that here is the depth of 232 feet in travelled soil, and no solid bottom found at this distance from the surface or level of the sea.  How far this depth may be from the bottom of these travelled materials is unknown; but this is certain, that all that depth, which has been sunk, had been filled up with those materials[13].

[Footnote 13:  An interesting map for the use of natural history would be made by tracing the places (behind this country of loose or travelled soil) where the solid strata appear above the level of the sea.  We should be thus able to form some notion of the quantity of materials which had been deposited in the water of this sea.  But, though we might thus enlarge our views a little with regard to the transactions of time past, it would only be in a most imperfect manner that we would thus form a judgment; for, not knowing the quantity of sand and mud carried out by the currents from the German sea into the Atlantic, we could only thus perceive a certain minimum, which is perhaps a little portion of the whole.]