So little confidence did the people of those times feel in it, and sv -vivid were their alarms whenever the seas ran high, that in 1250 they erected a secondary: bank in the rent, in order that a possible deluge might be limited to the' strip of country nearest the coast line. People living in the rear of this secondary rampart were not even then assured of safety, and they constructed a third bank, so that if the first and second were stormed and carried there would still be a protected zone further inland. The actual sea bank is called the Waker; the secondary. defence the Droomer, or dreamer; and the tertiary defence the Slaper, or sleeper. The applicability of these curious terms hardly needs to. be explained. The idea is that the seaward bank must keep.unbroken vigil, for on his broad shoulders rests the main responsibility for the safety of the provitice; whereas the second bank may repose dreamfully, and the innermost one may slumber as he, pleases, knowing that his turn. for. action can only come when two others, each as valiant as himself, shall have succumbed to the enemy. In modern times the idea of depending on subordinate defences has fallen somewhat into decay, and the. favoured policy' is that of concentrating. all available Inbour and money. on the seaward walls. True, the Droomer and the Slaper still exist. They ate. substantial grass covered mounds sug-festive of nothing so much as the line of hills whick mark the boundaries of the old Roman camp at Caistor. But they are not regarded as an effective part of coast. defence, than ever. - It was. practically. rebuilt' between 1872 and-1876, so substantially that the Droomer may, if he pleases, cease to '"'dream" and go in for the-death fal careless rest of his brother, the Slaper.
The care lavished upon the Waker is something of a revelation to the Englishman who is accustomed to the leisurely spirit in which: these. matters are regarded home. At the foot of the dyke on the landward side is what is known as the Gemeenelandshuis, the local office of the authority which has control of the defences in this particular district. There are town offices at Alkmaar, where most of the clerical work is done, and whence general instructions are issued, but the Gemeenelandshuis is the spot where the authority sits, where engineering measures are decided upon, where the local movements of the sea are recorded, and.all the deliberative work is settled. "There is a wonderful array of maps and charts,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.