132 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



Skeatta, indicate that the fortress was garrisoned, and, there- 

 fore, that the river was still navigable after the Roman 

 departure from Britain. Further west is the Roompot estuary, 

 where another Roman fastness is supposed to have existed on 

 the sand bank facing Ter Veer, in the East Scheldt; and 

 Romerswal, another fortress of the same people, was also a 

 small town on a bank in the West Scheldt, opposite Bergen- 

 op-Zoom, where we have seen remains of brick walls, covered 

 with sea-weed and muscles. So late as 1606, the -Hock of 

 Holland, Goeree, and other parts of the coast, were invaded 

 and swept away; and, at this day, West Capelle, in Walche- 

 ren, after similar devastations, is defended by rows of piles, 

 which occur again at Blankenberg, and even at Ostend. 



It was here, amidst the multitude of low woody islands, 

 formed by the confluence of the Scheldt, Dender, Lys, Nethe, 

 and Meuse, called the Paludes Morinorum, that places of 

 safety existed, whither the inhabitants retreated out of the 

 reach of Caesar's legions. In the middle ages, all this region 

 was still encumbered with swamps and water channels, which 

 extended up to St. Omers or Sethon,* communicated with the 

 sea at Calais and Dunkirk, until the emperor Otho, about the 

 year 9S0, caused a canal to be dug from the Scheldt to the 

 Hondt, which gradually drained the upland, and now consti- 

 tutes the Western Scheldt. Persevering cultivation, sus- 

 tained by manufacturing riches, alone succeeded to rescue the 

 drowned soil, and make it one of the most fertile portions of 

 Europe. The old mouth, now the Swyn, between Sluys and 

 Cadsandria, passed through a vast pool, where the largest 

 ships and fleets could assemble ; and the Swyn mouth was 



found during very low tides. The ruins have not been seen above water 

 during the last hundred years. 



*Sethon, Portus St. Aumeri, now St. Omers, was still a seaport; that 

 is, had a channel opening to the sea, in 1156, as appears by a charter of 

 Louis VII. Compare Caesar de B. G., lib. iv., with St. Paulin Epist. 

 ad Victru, who wrote in the fourth century. 



