After the dikes had been thus elevated, and their surface rendered firm by the straw ropes, though the latter were not yet properly fixed, the inhabitants of the _marsches_ for some time enjoyed repose; but on the 11th October 1634, the sea, rising to an excessive height, carried away, during a great tempest, the _hoogs_ which had produced the junction between Pellworm and Nord Strand, these having ever since continued distinct islands; it also violently attacked Ditmarsch; and its ravages extended over the whole coast, as far as the very extensive new lands of Jutland. Princes then came forward zealously to the relief of their subjects. In particular, Frederick III., Duke of Sleswigh, seeing that the inhabitants of Nord Strand were deficient both in the talents and in the means necessary for the reparation and future security of that large island, and knowing that the art of dikes had made greater progress in Holland, because of the opulence of the country, addressed himself to the States-General, requesting them to send him an engineer of dikes, with workmen accustomed to repair them; and this was granted. The dikes of Nord Strand were then repaired in the most solid manner; and the Dutch engineer, seeing the fertility of its soil, advised his sons upon his death-bed, to purchase lands and settle there, if the Duke would grant them the free exercise of their religion; they being Jansenist catholics, and the inhabitants of the island Lutherans. The Duke agreed to this, on condition that they and their posterity should continue to superintend the works carried on upon the dikes; to which they engaged themselves. From that time the art of dikes, and particularly that part of it which consists in covering them solidly with straw, has become common to all the _marsches_; and the Dutch families, which have contributed to this fortunate change, continue to inhabit the same island, and to enjoy the free exercise of their religion.” NOTE G, p. 28. ON THE SAND-FLOOD. In different parts of Scotland, as in Aberdeenshire, Hebrides, and Shetland Islands, there are examples of the natural chronometer mentioned in the text. In Morayshire there is a striking example of the sand-flood, concerning which the following details have been furnished by my young friend the Rev. Mr Ritchie. _Sand-Flood in Morayshire._ “Westward from the mouth of the river Findhorn in Morayshire, a district, consisting of upwards of ten square miles of land, which, owing to its extreme fertility, was once termed the Granary of Moray, has been depopulated and rendered utterly unproductive by the sand-flood. This barren waste may be characterised as hilly; the accumulations of sand composing these hills frequently varying in their height, and changing their situation.