SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. 



351 



deposition are going on continually and on a vast scale. No greater contrast can 

 there be than that presented by the rocky coasts of Norway and the flat, undefined 

 shore of Schleswig, though both face the same sea. 



No other district in Europe has sufi'ered more from irruptions of the sea than 

 this " Uthland," or outlying land, of Schleswig. Only fragments of the ancient 

 coast-line survive in some of the islands which originally formed a portion of the 

 mainland. It was one of these invasions of the sea which caused the Cimbri to 

 flee the country, and to begin their march across Europe which terminated on the 

 fatal field of Yercellœ. Forchhammer believes that the large boulders found along 

 the whole of the valley of the Eider, at an elevation of 66 feet above the sea-level, 

 mark the height of this fearful flood, which extended even to the east coast. Six 



Fig. 203. — The Basin of the Eider. 



1 6- 30- JS.of Paris 



Sandbanks w/ilc/t uncorer 



Dcitih cloioii tun Fathu 



hundred years ago the JFaftcn, or sand-banks, now covered at high water, were 

 fertile fields. Towards the middle of the thirteenth century many villages and 

 islands were inundated, and numerous floods are recorded as having taken place 

 since then, one of the most disastrous having been that of 1634, which swept away 

 several islands around Nordstrand. ISordstrand itself was left a desert for eighteen 

 years, when it was repeopled by Flemish colonists. Since then the floods have not 

 been of so calamitous a nature, the archipelago being protected by the dunes of the 

 outlying islands of Sylt and Amrum. 



If man had not undertaken to resist the encroachments of the sea, a great 

 portion of the littoral region of Schleswig would long ere this have disappeared 

 beneath the waves. The islands have been protected by double and treble lines 

 of dykes, and portions of the mainland have been drained and rendered secure. 



