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Show 288 FORMATION OF TilE ZUYDER ZEE. We may next examine the still more important changes which have taken place on the coast opposite the right arm of the Rhine or the Yssel, where the ocE:an has burst through a large isthmus, and entered the inland lake Flevo, which, in ancient times, was, according to Pomponius Mela, formed by the overflowing of the Rhine over certain low lands. It appears, that in the time of Tacitus, there were seYeral lakes in the present site of the Zuyder Zee, between Friesland and Holland. The successive inroads by which these, and a great part of the adjoining territory, were transformed into a great gulf, began about the beginning of the thirteenth century, and were completed about the end of the same. Alting gives the following relation of the occurrence, drawn from manuscript documents of contemporary inhabitants of the neighbouring provinces. In the year 1~05, the island now called Wieringen, to the south of the Texcl, was still a part of the main land, but during several high floods, of which the dates are given, ending in December, 1~51, it was separated from the continent. By subsequent incursions, the sea consumed great parts of the rich and populous isthmus, a low tract which stretched on the north of Lake Flevo, between Staveren in Friesland, and Medemblick in Holland, till at length a breach was completed about the year US~, and afterwards widened. Great destruction of land took place when the sea first broke in, and many towns were destroyed; but there was afterwards a reaction to a certain extent, large tracts at first submerged having been gradually redeemed. The new straits south of Staveren are more than half the width of those of Dover, but are very shallow, the greatest depth not exceeding two or three fathoms. The new bay is of a somewhat circular form, and between thi·rty and fo-rty miles in diameter. How much of this space may formerly have been occupied by Lake Flevo, is unknown. A series of isles, stretching from the Texel to the mouths of the 'Veser and Elbe, are evidently the last relics of a tract once continuous. '!'hey have greatly diminished in size, and have lost about a third of their number, since the time of Pliny*. While the delta of the Rhine has suffered so mate- • Some few of them have extended their bounds, or become connected with others, by the sanding up of channels i but even these, like Juist, have generoJly NEW ESTUARIES FORMED BY TilE SEA, 289 ria1ly frdo m h the a.c tion of tid es an d currents, I. t cannot be suppose t at mmor rivers should hav b . extend their deltas It e een permitted to ' . appears, that in the t' f h Romans there was an alluvial lain ~~e o t e the Ems entered the sea by thp of great fertihty, where I db ree arms. This low cou t strctc .1 e l etween GmninOo' en and E" 'as t F n·e s1 a n d and 'sentn o ruyt a pemnsu a to the north-east towards E d ' . 1~77, first destroyed part of the penins I m eOn.l ~ flood, 111 .c 11 1 d. tr u a. tIer Inundations to owec at merent periods throughout tl fif 1 In 1507, a part only of Torum a consider·albel tteent 1 cent~ry. d . d . . ' e own, remamed stfa ntl mg; an m splte of the erection of dam th . . d t I ' · s, e I em am er 0 . la pace, togetner With market-to wn s, VI"} 1 ages, an d monas ter1es, to the number of fifty were finall 1 I d - lf ' y overw 1c me The new gu ' called the Dollart, although small in ·. th z d z . d companson to e uy er :e, occupte no less than six squat·e miles at first. but part of this space was, in the course of tl1e t ..c 11 . ' t • . WO lO OW~nO' cen urJes, agam redeemed from the sea '1"1 11 b f Leybucht, farther north was formed l·n· . 1?1 sma ay ? h h · ' a s1m1 ar manner 111 t e t u:tcenth century, and the bay of Harlbucht in the middle of the sixteenth. Both of these have since been parti. 11 v t d · d 1 a y recon-er e mto ry and. Another new estuary, called the Gulf of Jahde, near the mouth of the Weser, scarcely inferior in size to the ~ollart, has ~een gradually hollowed out since the ear 1016, between whiCh era and 1651 a space of ab t f, y . miles has been added t I '. ou our square th' . I . o t 1e sea. The nvulet which now enters his 10 et IS very small; but Arens conjectures, that an arm of t e W eser had once an outlet in that direction. er:::ther north ';'e find so many records of waste on the west~ as.t o~ SleswiC.k, as to lead us to anticipate, that, at no distant perwd m the history of the physical geography of Em·ope, given way as much on the north t d th south, or land side. Osterdun B k owar ~ e sea, as they have gained on the wasting away. Buissen is rcd~ce~ tun, an d s~veral others, have been continually into three parts and W a t a san - ank. Langeroog has been divided away Plin , ' ngeroog cu m two, many buildings having been carried th . y counted twenty-three islands between the Texel and E' d . h ere are now only sixteen · 1 d' H r 1 cr, w ereas 364 II r I d ' me u mg e Igoland and Neuwerk.-Iloff. vol i · c Igo an at the mouth of the Elbe began in the ¥ear 800 t 'b · ., :P· consumed by the waves. In the cars 1300 1 . o e much swept away till at 1 st I I y . ' 500, and 16-19, other parts were a current h t a on y a roc' and some low ground remained. Since 1770 remaining poasr tioenn aa npda shs a"'e sufficient! d to d 't 1 ' o £ . d ~ eep a ml arge ships through this ' as orme two 1slands.-Hoff. vol i n 57 Vm., I. ' ' ·1 J.'' • u |