THE NETHEELAND DIKES. 399 



SeordiTces of tJie Neihei'lxmds. 



The formation of new banks by the sea is constantly going on 

 at points favorable for the deposit of sand, and earth, and hence 

 opportunity is continually afforded for enclosure of new land out- 

 side of that already diked in, the coast is fast advancing seaward, 

 and every new embankment increases the security of former 

 enclosures. The province of Zeeland consists of islands washed 

 by the sea on their western coasts, and separated by the many 

 channels through which the Schelde and some other rivers find 

 their way to the ocean. In the twelfth century these islands 

 were much smaller and more numerous than at present. They 

 have been gradually enlarged, and at least in several instances 

 connected, by the extension of their system of dikes. Wal- 

 cheren is formed of ten islets, united into one about the end of 

 the fourteenth century. At the middle of the fifteenth century, 

 Goeree and Overflakkee consisted of several separate islands, 

 containing altogether about ten thousand acres ; by means of 

 above sixty successive advances of the dikes, they have been 

 connected and brought to compose a single island whose area is 

 not less than sixty thousand acres.* 



In the Netherlands — which the first Napoleon characterized as 

 a deposit of the Rhine, and as, therefore, by natural law, right- 

 fully the property of him who controlled the sources of that 

 great river — and on the adjacent Frisic, Low Gennan and Danish 

 shores and islands, sea and river dikes have been constructed on 

 a grander and more imposing scale than in any other country. 

 The whole economy of the art has been there most thoroughly 

 studied, and the Hterature of the subject is very extensive. For 

 my present aim, which is concerned with results rather than with 

 processes, it is not worth while to refer to professional treatises, 

 and I shall content myself with presenting such information as 

 can be gathered from works of a more popular character. 



finally common grasses establish themselves. — Oin Markdannelsen paaVestkys- 

 ten af Slesmg, pp. 7, 8. 



* Staring, Voormaals en Thans, p. 152, Kohl states that the peninsula of 

 Diksand on the coast of Holstein consisted, at the close of the last century, of 

 several islands measuring together less than five thousand acres. In 1837 they 

 had been connected v?ith each other and with the mainland, and had nearly 

 doubled in area. — Iiiseln u. Marschen Schlesic. Hoist., iii., p. 263. 



