360 ON ALLUVIAL FORMATIONS. 



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 an- 

 cient German words SeeJcampfers, 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 obsure. Even at the present day, the 

 inhabitants of the marsches, from near Husum to Ton- 

 dern, or Tunder to the North, though themselves un- 

 acquainted 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 occa- 

 sion to pass. 



The Sicambri or North Frisians, are traced back to 

 some centuries before the Christian era. At the com- 

 mencement 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 cir- 

 cumstances of the history of this Frisian colony, record- 

 ed in the chronicles of which I have spoken ; but the his- 

 tory here interesting to us is that of the lands whereon 

 they settled. 



Jt appears that these people did not arrive here in 



