At one time, centuries ago, this
part of Flanders, which is now so bare, was, it is pretty clear,
covered by forests, the remains of which are still sometimes found
beneath the subsoil inland and under the sea. When the great change
came is unknown, but the process was probably gradual. At an early
period, here, as in Holland, the fight against the invasions of the
sea began, and the first dykes are said to have been constructed
in the tenth century. The first was known as the Evendyck, and
ran from Heyst to Wenduyne. Others followed, but they were swept
away, and now only a few traces of them are to be found, buried
beneath the sand and moss.[*]
[Footnote *: Bortier, _Le Littoral de la Flandre au IXe et au XIXe
Siecles._]
[Illustration: THE DUNES. A Stormy Evening.]
The wild storms of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries changed
the aspect of the coast of Flanders. Nieuport rose in consequence
of one of these convulsions of Nature, when the inhabitants of
Lombaerdzyde, which was then a seaport, were driven by the tempests
to the inland village of Santhoven, the name of which they changed
to 'Neoportus'--the new harbour. This was in the beginning of the
twelfth century, and thenceforth the struggle against the waves
went on incessantly.
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