PLAINS OP THE ELBE AND WESER, ETC. 



277 



square miles, but history hardly alludes to it since without telling us about some 

 dreadful irruption of the sea. In the seventeenth century Borkum still had 

 its seaport, its commercial fleet manned by natives of the island, and productive 

 farms. It is a mere shadow now of its former self. Wangerooge was well 

 cultivated up to 1840, when an incursion of the sea reduced it to a mere sand- 

 bank. The other islands present no more favourable picture. Inhabited by a 

 few fishermen, they would long ago have been washed away by the sea, if reeds 

 had not been planted to consolidate their sands. Norderney is the only one of 



Fig. 158. — NoiiDEiixEV, Baltrum, and the Neighiîourixg Coast. 

 Scale 1 : 200,000. 



5 Miles. 



these islands which exhibits traces of life during the fine season, when it is much 

 frequented for its sea baths. 



Ncuwerk, a small fortified island at the mouth of the Elbe, is an outlying 

 remnant of the ancient coast. Farther away from the land lies the famous island 

 of Heligoland, certainly within German waters, though occupied since 1808 by 

 England. At that time Heligoland was of considerable strategical importance, 

 for its crescent-shaped sand-bank afforded shelter to men-of-war. This bank is 

 known as the " Brunnen," a word supposed to mean shield. It forms a kind of 

 natural breakwater, and there can be no doubt that up to the close of the 



