BUILDING OF DIKES. 367 



it they first undertook the great enterprise of carrying 

 the Trene and the Nord Eyder higher up into the Ey~ 

 der; 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 en- 

 abled to carry on the extremities of the dike on both 

 sides to join the geest ; and the interval between the lat- 

 ter 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 wa- 

 ter, discharges them from both its extremities by sluices. 

 At the same time, the islands of Pelworm 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 bv the straw ropes, though the lat- 

 ter were not yet properly fixed, the inhabitants of the 

 marsches for some time enjoyed repose ; but on the llth 

 October 1634, the sea, rising to an excessive height, car- 

 ried away, during a great tempest, the hoogs which had 

 produced the junction between Pell worm and Nord 

 Strand, these having ever since continued distinct islands; 

 it also violently attacked Ditmarsch; and its ravages ex- 

 tended over the whole coast, as far as the very extensive 

 new lands of Jutland. Princes then came forward zea- 

 lously to the relief of their subjects. In particular, Fre- 

 derick 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 se- 



