«76 



GEEMANY. 



It is a century now since man obtained this mastery over the sea. Sheltered 

 behind his "walls of gold," he may feel secure from the assaults of the sea, and 

 fresh walls of defence are raised whenever the alluvial soil has sufficiently 

 accumulated beyond the existing barriers. That much land has thus been 

 recovered in the course of centuries is certain. The town of Jever, in the alluvial 

 tract to the north-west of the Jade, was a seaside town in the days of Charle- 

 magne, but lies now nearly 10 miles inland. In going from Wittmund to the 

 sea, a distance of 12 miles, we cross nine main dykes, marking as many 

 successive conquests of the " dykers." The oldest of these embankments was 

 thrown up in 1598. Still much remains to be done towards the " sanitation " of 



Fig. 157.— The Coast op East Fkiesland. 

 Scale 1 : 1,255,000. 



• 5 Fatlioms Une 



25 Miles. 



the country and the conquest of the Waffcii, or sand-banks, covered by each 

 advancing tide. 



The islands skirting the coast have apparently undergone more striking 

 changes than the mainland. They are evidently the remains of an ancient 

 coast-line broken up into fragments by the assaulting waves. Pliny enumerates 

 twenty-three islands as lying along the coast of Germania. There are now only 

 fourteen, seven of which lie off the coast of German Frit sland. Borkum — the 

 ancient BHrcJtana — must have been very much larger than it is now, for nineteen 

 centuries ago its inhabitants were sufficiently numerous to offer an armed resist- 

 ance to Drusus. In the twelfth century the island still had an area of 380 



