499 DRAINING OF THE ZUIDERZEE. 
nature in Holland. The Zuid Plas, which covered 11,500 acres, 
and was two feet deeper than the Lake of Haarlem, has been 
drained, and a similar work now in course of execution on an 
arm of the Scheld, will recover about 35,000 acres. 
In a country like the United States, of almost boundless 
extent of sparsely inhabited territory, such an expenditure for 
such an object would be poor economy. But Holland has a 
narrow domain, great pecuniary resources, an excessively 
crowded population, and a consequent need of enlarged room 
and opportunity for the exercise of industry. Under such cir- 
cumstances, and especially with an exposure to dangers so for- 
midable, there is no question of the wisdom of the measure. 
It has already provided homes and occupation for more than 
five thousand citizens, and furnished a profitable investment for 
a private capital of not less than £400,000 sterling or $2,000,- 
000, which has been expended in improvements over and 
above the purchase money of the soil; and the greater part 
of this sum, as well as of the cost of drainage, has been paid as 
a compensation for labor. The excess of governmental 
expenditure over the receipts, if employed in constructing 
ships of war or fortifications, would have added little to the 
military strength of the kingdom; but the increase of terri- 
tory, the multiplication of homes and firesides which the peo- 
ple have an interest in defending, and the augmentation of 
agricultural resources, constitute a stronger bulwark against 
foreign invasion than a ship of the line or a fortress armed with 
a hundred cannon. 
Draining of the Zuiderzee. 
I have referred to the draining of the Lake of Haarlem as 
an operation of great geographical as well as economical and 
mechanical interest. A much more gigantic project, of a 
similar character, is now engaging the attention of the Nether- 
landish engineers. It is proposed to drain the great salt-water 
basin called the Zuiderzee. This inland sea covers an area of 
