KURISCHES HAFF, a lagoon of Germany, on the Baltic coast of East Prussia, stretching from Labiau to Memel, a distance of 60 m., has an area of nearly 680 sq. m. It is mostly shallow and only close to Memel attains a depth of 23 ft. It is thus unnavigable except for small coasting and fishing boats, and sea-going vessels proceed through the Memeler Tief (Memel Deep), which connects the Baltic with Memel and has a depth of 19 ft. and a breadth of 800 to 1900 ft. The Kurisches Haff is separated from the Baltic by a long spit, or tongue of land, the so-called Kurische Nehrung, 72 m. in length and with a breadth of 1 to 2 miles. The latter is fringed throughout its whole length by a chain of dunes, which rise in places to a height of nearly 200 ft. and threaten, unless checked, to be pressed farther inland and silt up the whole Haff.
See Berendt, Geologie des Kurischen Haffs (Königsberg, 1869); Sommer, Das Kurische Haff (Danzig, 1889); A. Bezzenberger, Die Kurische Nehrung und ihre Bewohner (Stuttgart, 1889); and Lindner, Die Preussische Wüste einst und jetzt, Bilder von der Kurischen Nehrung (Osterwieck, 1898).