So many families--Belgians, English,
Germans, and a few French--spend the summer holidays there.
Hundreds of years ago the storms of winter used to drive the waves
ashore with such violence that the land was flooded, and whole
villages were sometimes swept away. So the people made ramparts of
earth to keep back the water, till by degrees many parts of the
Belgian shore were thus protected. They still continue to build
defences against the sea; but instead of earth they now use brick and
stone. It looks as if in a few years the whole coast will be lined by
these sea-fronts, which are called _digues de mer_.
A _digue_, no matter how thick, which rests on the sand alone will not
last. A thick bed of green branches is first laid down as a
foundation. This is strengthened by posts driven through it into the
sand. Heavy timbers, resting on bundles of branches lashed together,
are wedged into the foundations, and slope inwards and upwards to
within a few feet of the height to which it is intended to carry the
_digue_. On the top another solid bed of branches is laid down, and
the whole is first covered with concrete, and then with bricks or
tiles, while the top of the _digue_, at the edge of the seaward slope,
is composed of heavy blocks of stone cemented together and bound by
iron rivets.
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