[Illustration: LA PANNE. Interior of a Flemish Inn.]
A large sum, amounting to several millions of francs, is voted
every year for the protection of the shores of Flanders against
the encroachments of the sea, by the construction of these solid
embankments of brickwork and masonry, which will, in the course
of a few years, extend in an unbroken line along the whole coast
from end to end. The building of these massive sea-walls is a work
of great labour and expense, for what seems to be an impregnable
embankment, perhaps 30 feet high and 90 feet broad, solid and strong
enough to resist the most violent breakers, will be undermined and
fall to pieces in a few hours, if not made in the proper way. A
_digue_, no matter how thick, which rests on the sand alone will
not last. A thick bed of green branches bound together must first
be 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 edge of the
_digue_, at the top of the seaward slope, is composed of heavy blocks
of stone cemented together and bound by iron rivets.
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