410 DEAESriNG OF THE ZUIDEEZEE. 



character, is now engaging tiie attention of tlie Netherlandisli 

 engineers. It is proposed to drain the great salt-water basin called 

 the Zuiderzee. This inland sea covers an area of not less than 

 two thousand square miles, or about one million three hundred 

 thousand acres. The seaward haK, or that portion lying north- 

 west of a line drawn from Enkhuizen to Stavoren, is beheved to 

 have been converted from a marsh to an open bay since the fifth 

 century after Christ, and this change is ascribed, partly if not 

 wholly, to the interference of man with the order of nature. The 

 Zuiderzee communicates with the sea by at least six considerable 

 channels, separated from each other by low islands, and the tide 

 rises within the basin to the height of three feet. To drain the 

 Zuiderzee, these channels must first be closed and the passage of 

 the tidal flood through them cut off. If this be done, the coast 

 currents will be restored approximately to the lines they followed 

 fourteen or fifteen centuries ago, and there can be httle doubt 

 that an appreciable effect will thus be produced upon all the tidal 

 phenomena of that coast, and, of course, upon the maritime geog- 

 raphy of Holland. 



A ring-dike and canal must then be constructed around the 

 landward side of the basin, to exclude and carry off the fresh- 

 water streams which now empty into it. One of these, the Ijssel, 

 a considerable river, has a course of eighty miles, and is, in fact, 

 one of the outlets of the Rhine, though augmented by the waters 

 Df several independent tributaries. These preparations being 

 made, and perhaps transverse dikes erected at convenient points 

 for dividing the gulf into smaller portions, the water must be 

 pumped out by machinery, in substantially the same way as in 

 the case of the Lake of Haarlem.* l^o safe calculations can be 

 made as to the expenditure of time and money required for the 

 execution of this stupendous enterprise, but I beheve its prac- 

 ticability is not denied by competent judges, though doubts are 

 entertained as to its financial expediency, f The geographical re- 



* The dependence of man upon the aid of spontaneous nature, in his most 

 arduous material works, is curiously Ulustraled by the fact that one of the 

 most serious difficulties to be encountered, in executing this gigantic scheme, 

 is that of procuring brushwood for the fascines to be employed in the em- 

 bankments. See Diggelen's pamphlet, " Chroote Werken in Nederland." 



f The plan at present most in favor is that which proposes the drainage of 

 only a portion of the southern half of the Zuiderzee, which covers not far 



