THE DRAINING OF THE ZUIDER SEA. 555 



as soon as the finances will permit and entrust the work to a contractor, 

 knowing that every one of the 1,250,000 piles needed for the sea dyke 

 alone will be put in place and that not a hundredweight of the 70,000 

 tons of basalt blocks will be missing. The Dutchman is so loyal and 

 feels so much national pride that no imperfect work is ever found in 

 Government contracts. 



An idea of the magnitude of the work can be formed by glancing 

 at a few figures. 



The sea dyke will be 34:.8 miles long, 114.5 feet across the top and 

 21.6 feet above high water; the river Ysel is to be carried out into the 

 sea a distance of 10.5 miles with a width of 948 feet; the entrance to 

 Amsterdam must be widened by two miles; dykes around the polders 

 will be necessary having an aggregate length of 198 miles with an 

 average height of 11.4 feet; in the Island of Wieringen, 30 locks will 

 be required, 33 feet wide and 16 feet deep; an encircling canal must be 

 constructed from Enkhuyzen to Uitdam, a distance of eight miles; the 

 sea dykes on the Frisian coast must be heightened at a cost of $240,000 

 and four pumping stations with an aggregate of 16,930 horse power 

 must be installed. 



Though the undertaking is great, the entire commission agreed that 

 it should be done, and twenty-one out of the twenty-eight believed that 

 the State should be in control rather than to grant the concession to a 

 private party. When finished the State can issue another medal, like 

 the one minted to celebrate the draining of the Haarlem Lake to bear 

 the inscription: 



"Zuider Zee, after having for centuries assailed the surrounding 

 fields, to enlarge itself by their destruction, conquered at last by the 

 force of machinery, has returned to Holland its invaded land." And 

 the historian of the work will close his account of the material gain 

 to the State by saying: "But this is not all; we have driven forever 

 from the bosom of our country a most dangerous enemy ; we have at the 

 same time augmented the means for defending our capital in time of 

 war. We have conquered a province in a combat without tears and 

 without blood, where science and genius took the place of generals, and 

 where polder workmen were the worthy soldiers. Persevering to sur- 

 mount the obstacles of nature, and those created by man, the country 

 has accomplished, to its great honor and glory, one of the grandest 

 enterprises of the age." 



