Part 20

Such are the islands on this coast, in their present state, now rendered permanent by the degree of perfection at which the art of dike-making is arrived. But, in former times, though the _original_ land was never attacked by the _sea_, which, by adding to it _new lands_, soon formed a barrier against its own encroachments, the latter, and the _islands_ composed of the same materials, were subject to great and sudden changes, very fatal to those who were engaged to settle on them by the richness of their soil, comparatively with the continental. The inhabitants, who continued to multiply on them during several generations, were taught, indeed, by experience, that they might at last be invaded by the element which was incessantly threatening them; but having as yet no knowledge of natural causes, they blindly considered those that endangered them as supernatural, and for a long time used no precautions for their own security. They were ignorant of the dreadful effects of a certain association of circumstances, rare indeed, but, when occurring, absolutely destructive of these _marsches_. This association consists of an extraordinary elevation of the level of the North Sea, from the long continuance of certain winds in the Atlantic, with a violent storm occurring during the tides of the new or full moon; for then the sea rises above the level of all the _marsches_; and before they were secured against such attacks, the waves rolling over them, and tearing away the grass which had bound their surface, they were reduced to the state of mere banks of sand and mud, whence they had been drawn, by the long course of ordinary causes. Such were the dreadful accidents to which the first settlers on these lands were exposed; but no sooner were they over, than ordinary causes began again to act; the sand-banks rose; their surface was covered with grass; the coast was thus extended, and new islands were formed; time effaced the impression of past misfortunes; and those among the inhabitants of these dangerous soils, who had been able to save themselves on the coast, ventured to return to settle on them again, and had time to multiply, before the recurrence of the same catastrophes.

This has been the general course of events on all the coasts of the North Sea, and particularly on those of the countries of Sleswigh and Holstein. It is thus that the origin and progress of the _art of dikes_ will supply us with a very interesting _chronometer_ in the history of the continent and of man, particularly exemplified in this part of the globe. A Lutheran clergyman, settled in the island of Nord Strand, having collected all the particulars of this history which the documents of the country could afford, published it in 1668, in a German work, entitled _The North Frisian Chronicle_. It was chiefly from this work, and from the _Chronicle of Dankwerth_, that M. Hartz extracted the information which he gave to me, accompanied by two maps, copied for me, by one of his sons, from those of Johannes Mayerus, a mathematician; they bear the title of _Frisia Cimbrica_; one of them respecting the state of the _islands_ and of the _coast_, in 1240, as it may be traced in the chronicles, and the other, as it was in 1651.

According to these documents, the first inhabitants of the _marsches_ were _Frisii_ or _Frisians_, designated also under the names of _Cimbri_ and _Sicambri_: the latter name, M. Hartz conjectures, might come from the ancient German words _Seekampfers_, i. e. _Sea-warriors_; the _Frisians_ being very warlike. These people appear to have had the same origin with those, who, at a rather earlier period, took possession of the _marsches_ of Ost-Frise (East-Friesland), and of that Friesland which forms one of the United Provinces; but this common origin is very obscure. Even at the present day, the inhabitants of the _marsches_, from near Husum to Tondern, or Tunder to the North, though themselves unacquainted with it, speak a language which the other inhabitants of the country do not understand, and which is supposed to be Frisian. It is the same at a village in the peninsula of Bremen, by which I have had occasion to pass.

The _Sicambri_ or _North Frisians_, are traced back to some centuries before the Christian era. At the commencement of that era, they were attacked by Frotho, King of Denmark, and lost a battle, under their king Vicho, near the river Hever. Four centuries afterwards they joined the troops of Hengist and Horsa. In the year 692, their king Radebot resided in the island of Heiligeland. Charles Martel subdued them in 732; and some time afterwards they joined Charlemagne against Gottric, King of Denmark. These are some of the circumstances of the history of this Frisian colony, recorded in the chronicles of which I have spoken; but the history here interesting to us is that of the lands whereon they settled.

It appears that these people did not arrive here in one body, but successively, in the course of many years: they spread themselves over various parts of the coasts of the North Sea, and even a considerable way up the borders of the Weser and the Elbe; according to documents which I have mentioned in my _Lettres sur l’Histoire de la Terre et de l’Homme_. These new settlers found large _marsches_, formed, as well in the wide mouths of those rivers as along the coasts, and around the original islands of _geest_; especially that of Heiligeland, the most distant from the coast, and opposite the mouth of the Eyder. Of this island, which is steep towards the south, the original mass consists of strata of _sandstone_; and at that time its _marsch_ extended almost to Eyderstede: there were _marsches_ likewise around all the other original islands; besides very large islands of pure _marsch_ in the intervals of the former.

All these lands were desert at the arrival of the Frisians; and the parts on which they established their first habitations, to take care of their breeds of horses and cattle feeding on the _marsches_, were the original eminences of the islands; on that of Heiligeland they built a temple to their great goddess Phoseta, or Fosta. When they became too numerous to confine themselves to the heights, their herds being also greatly multiplied, they ventured to begin inhabiting the _marsches_; but afterwards, some great inundations having shewn them the dangers of that situation, they adopted the practice followed by those who had settled on the _marsches_ of the province of Groningen, and still continued on the Halligs; that of raising artificial mounts called _werfs_, on which they built their houses, and whither they could, upon occasion, withdraw their herds; and it likewise appears, that, in the winter, they assembled in greater numbers on the spots originally the highest, in the islands, as well as on some parts of the coasts.

Things continued in this state for several centuries; during which period, it is probable that the inhabitants of these lands were often, by various catastrophes, disturbed in the enjoyment of them, though not discouraged. But in 516, by which time these people were become very numerous, more than 600 of them perished by one of the concurrences of fatal circumstances already defined. It was then that they undertook the astonishing enterprise of enclosing these lands. They dug ditches around all the _marsches_, heaping up on their exterior edge the earth which was taken out; and thus they opposed to the sea, dikes of eight feet in height. After this, comprehending that nothing could contribute more to the safety of their dwellings, than to remove the sea to a greater distance, they undertook, with that view, to exclude it from the intervals between the islands, by uniting, as far as should be possible, those islands with each other. I will describe the process by which they effected this, after I shall have recalled to attention some circumstances leading to it.

From all that I have already said of the _fore-lands_, and of the manner in which they are increased, it may be understood, that the common effects of the _waves_ and of the _tides_ is to bring materials from the bottom of the sea towards the coasts; and that the process continues in every state of the sea. The land winds produce no _waves_ on the coasts, which can carry back to the bottom of the sea what has been brought thence by the winds blowing against the shore; and as for the _tides_, it may have been already comprehended (and shall soon be proved), that the _ebb_ carries back but very little of what has been brought by the _flood_. So that, but for some extraordinary circumstances, the materials continually impelled towards the shore, which first form islands, would at last unite against the coast in a continuous soil. The rare events, productive of great catastrophes, do not carry back these materials towards the bottom of the sea; they only, as it has been said before, ravage the surface, diminishing the heights, and destroying the effect of vegetation. These, then, were the effects against which it was necessary to guard.

I now come to the plan of uniting the _islands_, formed by these early inhabitants. They availed themselves for that purpose of all such parts of the sand-banks as lay in the intervals between the large islands, and were beginning to produce grass. These, when surrounded with dikes, are what are called _Hoogs_; and their effects are to break the waves, thus diminishing their action against the dikes of the large islands, and, at the same time, to determine the accumulation of the mud in the intervals between those islands. In this manner a large _marsch_ island, named Everschop, was already, in 987, united to Eyderstede by the point on which Poppenbull is situated; and in 995, the union of the same _marsches_ was effected by another point, namely, that of Tetenbull. Lastly, in the year 1000, Eyderstede received a new increase by the course of the Hever, prolonged between the sand banks, being fixed by a dike; but the whole still remained an _island_. This is an example of the manner in which the _marsch_ islands were united by the _hoogs_; and the chronicle of the country says, that, by these labours, the islands were so considerably enlarged in size, and the intervals between them so much raised, that, at low water, it was possible to pass on foot from one to the other. The extent of these _marsches_ was so great on the coast of Sleswigh alone, that they were divided into three provinces, two of which comprehended the islands, and the third comprised the _marsches_ contiguous to the coast; and the same works were carried on upon the _marsches_ of the coast of Holstein.

But the grounds thus gained from the sand-banks were very insecure; these people, though they had inhabited them more than ten centuries, had not yet understood the possibility of that combination of fatal circumstances above described, against which their dikes formed but a very feeble rampart; the North Sea, by the extraordinary elevations of its level, being much more formidable in this respect than the ocean, where the changes of absolute level are much less considerable. I shall give an abridged account of the particulars extracted by M. Hartz from the chronicle of Dankwerth, relative to the great catastrophes which these _marsches_ successively underwent, previously to the time when experience led to the means necessary for their security.

In 1075, the island of Nord Strand, then contiguous to the coast, particularly experienced the effect of that unusual combination of destructive causes; the sea passing over its dike, and forming within it large excavations like lakes. In 1114 and 1158, considerable parts of Eyderstede were carried away; and in 1204, the part called Sudhever in the _marsch_ of Uthholm was destroyed. All these catastrophes were fatal to many of the _marsch_ settlers; but in 1216, the sea having risen so high that its waves passed over Nord Strand, Eyderstede, and Ditmarsch, near 10,000 of their inhabitants perished. Again, in 1300, seven parishes in Nord Strand and Pellworm were destroyed; and in 1338, Ditmarsch experienced a new catastrophe, which swept away a great part of it on the side next Eyderstede: the dike of the course of the Eyder between the sand-banks was demolished, and the tides have ever since preserved their course throughout that wide space. Lastly, in the year 1362, the isles of Fora and Sylt, then forming but one, were divided, and Nord Strand, then a _marsch_ united to the coast, was separated from it.

During a long time, the inhabitants who survived these catastrophes, and their successors, were so much discouraged, that they attempted nothing more than to surround with _dikes_ like the former such spaces of their meadow-land as appeared the least exposed to these ravages, leaving the rest to its fate. But the common course of causes continually tending to extend and to raise the grassy parts of the sand-banks, and no extraordinary combination of circumstances having interrupted these natural operations, later generations, farther advanced in the arts, undertook to secure to themselves the possession of those new grounds. In 1525, they turned their attention to the indentations made, during the preceding catastrophes, in the borders of the _marsches_; the waves, confined in these narrow spaces, sometimes threatening to cut their way into the interior part. In the front of all the creeks of this kind they planted stakes, which they interlaced with osiers, leaving a certain space between the lines. The waves, thus broken, could no longer do injury to the _marsch_; and their sediments being deposited on both sides of this open fence, very solid _fore-lands_ were there formed. In 1550, they raised the _dikes_ considerably higher, employing wheelbarrows, the use of which was only then introduced. For this purpose, they much enlarged and deepened the interior canals, in order to obtain more earth, not merely to add to the height of the dikes, but to extend their base on the outer side. At last they began to cover these dikes with straw-ropes; but this great preservative of dikes was at first ill managed; and the use of it was so slowly spread, that it was not adopted in North Strand and in Eyderstede, till about the years 1610 and 1612.

Before that time, however, the safety of the extensive soil of the latter _marsch_ had been provided for in a different manner. I have said above, that, when the isles of Everschop and Utholm had been united to it, the whole together still formed but one large _island_; now, in this state, it was in as great danger on the side towards the continent, as on that open to the sea; because two small rivers, the Trene and the Nord Eyder, discharging themselves into the interval between it and the land, and by preserving their course to the sea, this interval was thus kept open to tempest, sometimes from the side of the Hever, sometimes from that of the Eyder; and the waves, beating against the _geest_, were thence repelled upon the _marsch_. The inhabitants, seeing that the expence of remedying these evils would be greater than they could afford, while at the same time it was indispensable to their safety, addressed themselves to their bishop and to their prefect, of whom they requested pecuniary assistance; and having obtained it they first undertook the great enterprise of carrying the Trene and the Nord Eyder higher up into the Eyder; keeping their waters, however, still separate for a certain space, by a _dam_ with a _sluice_, in order to form there a reservoir of fresh water; the tides ascending up the Eyder above Frederickstadt. They were thus enabled to carry on the extremities of the _dike_ on both sides to join the _geest_; and the interval between the latter and the _marsch_ was then soon filled up, there being only left at their junction the canal above described which receives the water of the _geest_, and, at low water, discharges them from both its extremities by sluices. At the same time, the islands of Pellworm and Nord Strand were united with each other by means of eight _hoogs_; and the _sandy marsches_ of which I have spoken, contiguous to the _geest_, on the north of that of Husum, were inclosed with dikes.

After the dikes had been thus elevated, and their surface rendered firm by the straw ropes, though the latter were not yet properly fixed, the inhabitants of the _marsches_ for some time enjoyed repose; but on the 11th October 1634, the sea, rising to an excessive height, carried away, during a great tempest, the _hoogs_ which had produced the junction between Pellworm and Nord Strand, these having ever since continued distinct islands; it also violently attacked Ditmarsch; and its ravages extended over the whole coast, as far as the very extensive new lands of Jutland. Princes then came forward zealously to the relief of their subjects. In particular, Frederick III., Duke of Sleswigh, seeing that the inhabitants of Nord Strand were deficient both in the talents and in the means necessary for the reparation and future security of that large island, and knowing that the art of dikes had made greater progress in Holland, because of the opulence of the country, addressed himself to the States-General, requesting them to send him an engineer of dikes, with workmen accustomed to repair them; and this was granted. The dikes of Nord Strand were then repaired in the most solid manner; and the Dutch engineer, seeing the fertility of its soil, advised his sons upon his death-bed, to purchase lands and settle there, if the Duke would grant them the free exercise of their religion; they being Jansenist catholics, and the inhabitants of the island Lutherans. The Duke agreed to this, on condition that they and their posterity should continue to superintend the works carried on upon the dikes; to which they engaged themselves. From that time the art of dikes, and particularly that part of it which consists in covering them solidly with straw, has become common to all the _marsches_; and the Dutch families, which have contributed to this fortunate change, continue to inhabit the same island, and to enjoy the free exercise of their religion.”

NOTE G, p. 28.

ON THE SAND-FLOOD.

In different parts of Scotland, as in Aberdeenshire, Hebrides, and Shetland Islands, there are examples of the natural chronometer mentioned in the text. In Morayshire there is a striking example of the sand-flood, concerning which the following details have been furnished by my young friend the Rev. Mr Ritchie.

_Sand-Flood in Morayshire._

“Westward from the mouth of the river Findhorn in Morayshire, a district, consisting of upwards of ten square miles of land, which, owing to its extreme fertility, was once termed the Granary of Moray, has been depopulated and rendered utterly unproductive by the sand-flood. This barren waste may be characterised as hilly; the accumulations of sand composing these hills frequently varying in their height, and changing their situation.

There is historical evidence, that, in the year 1097, the Moray Firth overflowed the low country on its southern shore, and threw out sand. But the destruction of the barony of Coubine (which includes the greater part of the desert mentioned above) was long subsequent to this, as might be proved from the inscription on a tombstone in the church yard of Dyke. From historical notices, also, in regard to the Kinnairds of Coubine, preparing for publication, it appears that the eruption of sand commenced about the year 1677; that its progress was gradual; that, in 1697, not a vestige was to be seen of the manor-place, orchards, and offices of Coubine; that two-thirds of the barony were already ruined, and that the sand was daily gaining ground.

This sand, which overwhelmed Coubine, came from Mavieston, situated on the shore, about seven miles west from the mouth of the Findhorn, where, from time immemorial, there have been large accumulations of sand. The sands at Mavieston had formerly been covered with vegetation. In an act of the Scottish Parliament, dated 16th July 1695, for the preservation of lands adjacent to sand-hills, it is stated, that the destruction of Coubine “was occasioned by the bad practice of pulling bent and juniper.” Having been thus set at liberty, the sand moved towards the north-east, as appears from the desolation which marks its progress. The moving cause is the wind. I have had opportunities of witnessing the effect of the wind on the loose sand. When the breeze is moderate it carries along with it successive waves of sand, each wave (if I may be allowed the expression) being of a small size, and moving with greater or less velocity, in proportion to the strength of the breeze, and presenting a very beautiful appearance. When the wind is high the heavier particles are drifted forwards, the more minute are raised to a considerable height in the atmosphere, occasioning no small inconvenience to the spectator, who finds his ears and nostrils filled with sand. The movements of the sand are still towards the north-east. In the winter of 1816 a large portion of Binsness, the only remaining farm on the west side of the Findhorn, situated in the line of the sand’s progress, was overwhelmed. Since that period large accumulations of sand have disappeared altogether, and rich soil, marked with the plough, has been left bare, after having been buried for upwards of a century.

The very minute particles, which, as has been stated, the wind raises to a considerable height, are occasionally carried across the Bay of Findhorn. In the statistical account of Dyke, the parish in which Coubine is situated, it is said, “that, at the town of Findern, in a blowing day, one may feel the sand sharply striking on his face, from the west side.” This sand, of extreme fineness, is to be seen in and around the town of Findhorn, and along the coast much rich land is said to have been covered by sand brought from the west.