MARSCH LANDS. 



195 



may be passed over on foot ; and there are found on it 

 gravel and blocks of granite. But on the same side of 

 Fora there is a great extent of marsch, beginning from 

 St. Laurencius. Among the islands consisting entirely 

 of marsch and surrounded with dikes, the most considera- 

 ble are Pellworm and Nord Strand ; and among the Hal- 

 ligs, or those inhabited without dikes, the chief are Olant, 

 Nord-marsh, Langne, Groode, and Hooge. 



Such are the islands on this coast, in their present 

 state, now rendered permanent by the degree of perfec 

 tion at which the art of dike-making is arrived. But, in 

 former times, though the original land was never attack- 

 ed by the sea, which, by adding to it new lands, soon 

 formed a barrier against its own encroachments, the lat- 

 ter, and the islands composed of the same materials, were 

 subject to great and sudden changes, very fatal to those 

 who are engaged to settle on them by the richness of 

 their soil, comparatively with the continental. The inha- 

 bitants, who continued to multiply on them during seve- 

 ral 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 know- 

 ledge 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, abso- 

 lutely 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, 



