The first historical accounts of the storm tidal waves is referred to by Strabo as having occurred in 113 B.C., this, he relates, drove the Cimbers and Teutons from their homes and was the cause of their threatening Rome. Many other floods occurred which are known as "Manntranke" (man drowning). In the flood of 1216, for instance, 10,000 persons lost their lives, and three years later the "Marcellus" flood caused similar destruction. In 1300 the second "Marcellus" flood broke 12 feet over the highest dikes and Schleswig alone lost 7,600 persons in the waves. Heligoland was at that time a large island, 46 miles long and 24 miles wide, it contained a monastery, many churches, large villages, extensive cultivations and forests; the island was all but destroyed by this inundation. Before that disastrous occurrence the island could be seen from the shores of Friesland, which in the days of Charles the Great was twice as large as now. The Friesland of to-day is only the southern and poorest remnant of the magnificent lands which were completely destroyed on October 11, 1684; 20 parishes and 150,000 persons disappeared beneath the waves, which broke through the dikes simultaneously in twenty-four places. To relate all inundations would lead too far, but the most serious may be mentioned as showing the struggles in which the inhabitants of the North Sea coast are engaged. That of 1421, which swallowed 21 parishes and 100,000 persons; then the most terrible of which there is any record, and which is known as the "All Saints' Day" flood of 1570; the sea raged along the whole of the coast from Holland to Jutland for forty-eight hours, carried away all the dikes and caused the loss of 400,000 lives; the whole country lay waste for years, for the want of population to rebuild the dikes. The Christmas flood of 1717 also visited the whole coast and 15,000 lives were lost. During the present century the destruction by the sea has been minimized, as the dikes are now built strong and high enough to withstand the heaviest seas. The various islands along the coast act as breakwaters and protect, to a great extent, the coast line; the various governments are endeavoring to strengthen the islands by vegetation, but it appears to be only a question of time when they will disappear altogether. Although the sea has, during the past 1,000 years, robbed the Dutch of great tracts of land, yet they have, by enduring perseverance, recovered a great deal, and there appears no doubt that they will succeed to form the Zuider Sea into rich agricultural lands, just as they have already dried up the Harlem Sea and converted it into waving cornfields. Ground is also gained yearly in other directions, by continually extending the dikes; the richest lands on the coasts of Holland and Germany have thus been reclaimed from the ocean, and they are protected by means which secure the coasts against future encroachment. * * * * *