388 BELGIUM. 



at war witli the Duke of Brabant, sustained a severe defeat upon a vast sheet of 

 water which then covered the polders of Hingen, at the mouth of the IlupeL 



In the eleventh century the riverine inhabitants began to embank the 

 schorren of the Schelde, and in a chronicle of the year 1124 mention is made 

 of the dykes of the Lillo below Antwerp. M. de Laveleye estimates the area of 

 the polders which have been embanked since the thirteenth century at 120,000 

 acres, of which about 20,000 acres have been won from the sea since 1815. There 

 still remain extensive tracts capable of being converted into cultivable land, for the 

 area of the estuary of the Schelde between Flushing and Burght, above Antwerp, 

 varies between 55,235 and 83,060 acres, according to the state of the tide. 

 Unfortunately for the chance of carrying out works on so vast a scale, it is next to 

 impossible to secure the hearty co-operation of the Butch and Belgian Governments, 

 and of their engineers. Much of the land embanked after the sixteenth century 

 had been a prey to the sea in the course of the memorable siege of Antwerp 

 in 1585, which completely changed the face of the country. Even now there 

 exist traces of that event. Some of the old polders of Saaftingen, which to the 

 north of Hulst extended into Holland, have not yet been recovered. The marshes, 

 however, which were drained by the Prince of Parma, are still amongst the most 

 productive lands of Belgium, and the transformation of a considerable portion of 

 Waes into a garden dates back to that epoch. Before the termination of the 

 siege 74,102 acres of polders had been inundated ; both banks of the Rupel were 

 under water to within a short distance of Malines, whilst nearly all the polders 

 recovered since the twelfth century below Antwerp were once more surrendered 

 to the sea. The most terrible combats were fought on the narrow embankment 

 which connected Fort St. Jacques with Fort Ste. Croix, and the breaches effected in 

 it were repeatedly filled up with the bodies of the slain. 



The changes which have taken place in the basins of the Yser and of other 

 small rivers flowing direct into the North Sea are proportionately even more 

 considerable than those noticed in connection with the Schelde. Ancient bays 

 have been silted up by marine alluvium, seaports have been converted into 

 agricultural villages, and bays which formerly bore large vessels have been 

 changed into polders, intersected by sluggish canals, only navigable for small 

 wherries. In 1116 the harbour of Lombardzyde, at the mouth of the Yser, was 

 silted up during a storm, and a " New Port " (Nieuwpoort) had to be constructed, 

 which the current of the river has kept open to the present day. 



Bruges was accessible originally to vessels of large burden, which subsequently 

 were not able to get beyond Damme, even though the tide served them. Later still 

 the port of Bruges had to be removed to Sluis, on the estuary of the Zwyn, famous 

 for the naval battle of 1213, in which the allied Flemings and English contended 

 against Philip Augustus's fleet of two hundred sail. The port of Sluis, too, is 

 now no longer accessible to any but the smallest craft. The gigantic embankments 

 constructed to confine the Schelde have become useless, for the sea retires of its 

 own accord, and the Gulf of the Zwyn, which was of vast extent in the sixteenth 

 century, has dwindled down into a narrow estuary, which the engineers purpose 



