RECLAMATION OF MARSH LANDS. 601 
He also gives an exposition of his theory of the formation of tidal 
marshes, and medical views concerning malaria or miasma and the adapt- 
ability of marsh lands for cultivation, which are not subjects suited to 
the original and practical character of our reports. The following 
extracts are given: 
A GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OF RECLAMATION. 
If we glance back over the many centuries the brave inhabitants of the Netherlands 
have held their fertile country against the ocean, after rescuing it from the waters, we 
must be struck with admiration at such an instance of a nation’s perseverance. The 
Hollanders found their country a morass; they now present it a very picture of fertility 
and abundance, and we must not forget that, though they worked hard at their na- 
tional defenses against the ocean, they were not spared the horrors of war by their 
neighbors. The country they strove to rescue from the sea became, on account of its 
position, the battle-field on which many European quarrels were decided, and the in- 
habitants were often compelled to cast aside the spade and grasp the sword in defense 
of their lives and property. 
The pericdical overflowing of the Nile to uncertain limits necessitated the control- 
ling of the waters within defined boundaries, and this control was most undoubtedly 
exercised by means of embankments. 
The Pheenicians—the people of Tyre and the ancient sea-ports of the East, the Greeks 
and the Romans erected extensive works on their sea-coast to protect their cities and 
ships from ocean storms and foreign enemies, and no doubt they inclosed low-lying 
lands in many instances for the purpose. The Romans during their occupation of Brit- 
ain raised immense lines of embankments at several points along the coast, the re- 
mains of which are still in existence. In fact, all nations as they advanced in civiliza- 
tion seem to have recognized in reclamation a means of extending the area of land to 
. distributed among the people without necessitating an emigration of surplus pop- 
ulation. ‘ 
This has been the case in India and China, where the dense population manages to 
accommodate itself to the limits of those countries, and it is only within the last few 
years that we have seen any signs of a movement by these people to other countries. 
The original settlers of the Netherlands were the descendants of those wandering 
tribes whose emergence from their homes in the North heralded the downfall of the 
Roman empire and laid the foundation of the nationalities which at present checker 
the map of Europe. 
The first steps toward erecting barriers against the tidal overflow in Holland are 
stated to have been taken in or about the second century of the Christian era. It is 
probable that vanguards of the great army of invasion which in later times overran 
Europe from the north had begun to move forward and occupy in small bodies the 
country lying along the northern coast. As the population increased and the groups 
of mud huts grew into large towns and cities, the necessity for placing under cultiva- 
tion more extensive areas of land became imperative. The more valuable these 
settlements grew to the people, the more desirous were they to guard them against de- 
struction by the sea, and the attention of the government and people was directed to 
the general and permanent embanking of the whole coast. How they have succeeded 
we all know. The country which was once a desolate marsh is nowagarden. Visitors 
passing through it acknowledge that in no part of the world is scientific agriculture 
better understood or applied, although the fields and dwellings are in many places 
twenty feet below the level of the sea. It was not alone necessary to embank 
against the sea, but also against the waters of some of the great rivers whose sources 
are to be found in the very heart of Europe, and which would overflow all the low 
lands they traverse had not the precaution of confining them to their natural chan- 
nels been taken by the Hollanders. 
Many works have been written which give detailed descriptions of the manner in 
which the diking of the Netherlands was carried on. The foundation of the work 
was laid by nature. The superstructure is the work of man. Along the coast exposed 
to the northwestern storms a bank of sand was washed up by the action of the 
waves, and a natural barrier was erected against the incursion of the tidal waves. A 
belt of wood which grew along the coast, and against which the sand was heaped, 
assisted the early toilers in their labors by afiording both shelter and material. 
This wood has since disappeared to a great extent in the constant repairs rendered 
necessary by the action of the waves in stormy weather. 
Beyond strengthening and connecting these mounds or banks of sand, and securing 
the lands in the immediate peighborhood of the ocean from tidal overilow, little was 
done in the beginning on the main embankment along the coast, while the river 
banks were left wholly exposed. The great work once initiated, however, it has pro- 
