district of the kingdom of Hanover, comprising about 110 square miles of rich marsh land, near the mouth of the Elbe. It contains two market-towns and twelve parishes, with about 20,000 inhabitants. It is chiefly remarkable for the privileges it enjoys of a very slight fixed taxation, and a freedom from the quartering of troops, which have been granted on account of the great expenditure incurred by erecting and keeping up dikes, to prevent the irruption of the sea. It produces abundant crops of corn, beans, rapeseed, flax, and garden fruits, and fattens many oxen. The chief town is Altenbruck, which contains 2500 inhabitants.