NETHERLANDS. 



NEVADA. 



477 



1867, consisted of 2,159 vessels, together of 

 510,455 tons. The movement of shipping, in 

 1867, was as follows : 



The Scheldt, at its embouchure in the North 

 Sea, is divided into two main branches called the 

 East and the West Scheldt ; the space between 

 them, which is traversed by other less impor- 

 tant branches of the river, is occupied by the 

 islands of North Beveland and Walcheren 

 everywhere below the level of the sea, and 

 protected by dikes against the surrounding 

 waters forming a part of the Province of 

 Zealand. On the East Scheldt, between the 

 island of South Beveland and North Brabant, 

 an important embankment has been formed to 

 carry the Bergen-op-Zoom and Flushing Rail- 

 way, which unites the latter with the Conti- 

 nental system. The river here is two and a 

 half miles wide ; it is subject to all the fluctua- 

 tions of the ocean, from which it is only a few 

 leagues distant, and yet, in the face of these 

 adverse circumstances, the embankment has 

 been formed in three months. It was com- 

 menced in February, 1867, and the works of 

 consolidation and completion have occupied 

 the remaining period. The railway was in- 

 augurated in January, 1869, with much cere- 

 mony. The embankment is more than 12,000 

 feet long, and the quantity of materials con- 

 sumed amounted to 123 tons per metre, or 

 500,000 tons in all. The embankment was 

 commenced by laying fascines on the bed of the 

 river; upon this foundation the ballast was 

 thrown, and the whole is protected by solid 

 masonry. The embankment is ten metres in 

 width, and rises five metres above ordinary 

 high-water mark. It was a bold idea thus 

 to make a narrow causeway from two to 

 three miles long between what may almost 

 be called two seas, and the result seems to be 

 satisfactory. At low-water a curious spectacle 

 is presented : the retreating sea leaves the bed 

 of the river almost dry on one side of the em- 

 bankment, while on the other the water is 

 heaped up and kept back by 'this artificial 

 barrier. The construction of this railway duct 

 having cut off the means of communication 

 with the Meuse, a canal has been cut for the 

 navigation. This canal is six mites and a quar- 

 ter in length, and traverses the island of South 

 Beveland between Hansweert and Wemel- 

 dange ; it is of sufficient width and depth for 

 the largest merchant-vessels. The railway is 

 carried over this canal by means of a swing- 

 bridge. 



The Government of the Netherlands is pro- 

 jecting a ship-canal which is to cut though 

 the isthmus of North Holland, and will con- 



vert the city of Amsterdam into a North Sea 

 port. Two piers, each 5,000 feet long, are 

 being projected into the sea to form a harbor 

 of refuge, to embrace an area of 7,200 acres. 

 About 1,000 yards inland will be the basin, 

 which is to form the entrance to the canal. It 

 will be 26 feet deep and 197 feet wide 

 exceeding the dimensions of the Suez Canal. 

 It will be carried through the midst of a sheet 

 of water, or inland lake, the Wyker Meer, 

 which will be dammed up, along with the 

 river, which is so called from the shape of its 

 course (Y), and afterward pumped dry and 

 converted into pasture-land. The cost of these 

 vast works will amount to 27,000,000 florins, 

 and it will be completed in 1876. 



NEVADA, a State of the American Union, 

 lying on the Pacific slope, or rather between 

 the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains, 

 having California on the West and Utah on the 

 East, Oregon and Idaho at the North, and Cali- 

 fornia and New Mexico at the South. Its area 

 is now settled as 112,090 square miles. Its 

 population was estimated in 1869 at 60,000. 

 Carson City is its capital, but Virginia City 

 is the largest town. The assessed value of real 

 estate in the autumn of 1868 was in round 

 numbers $15,000,000, and of personal estate 

 $10,000,000. The manufacturing capital of 

 the State at that time was about $2,500,000, 

 but has since materially increased. The amount 

 of capital invested in quartz-mills, stamping 

 and crushing machines, and smelting-works 

 for the reduction of ores, is over $12,000,000. 

 The great Comstock lode, the most productive 

 of the silver lodes in the State has produced over 

 $80,000,000 since its first opening ; its present 

 annual yield is about $16,000,000, and when 

 the great Sutro tunnel which is in progress is 

 completed, cutting the lode, as it will, about 

 3,000 feet below the mouth of the highest 

 of the present shafts, and effectually draining 

 it, the production must be vastly increased. 

 The mines in the White Pine region, of which 

 some account was given in the ANNUAL CYCLO- 

 PAEDIA for 1868, continue to prove largely pro- 

 ductive, though the great elevation (about 

 8,000 feet) and the coldness and barrenness 

 of the region make it an undesirable place for 

 a civilized being to live in. What is known as 

 the Base Metal-range in that vicinity, but at a 

 less altitude (two or three miles west of Treas- 

 ure City), has given indications of lodes equal- 

 ly rich with those of the Eberhardt mine. The 

 Reveille district, 125 miles south of White 

 Pine, in Nye County, is also attracting atten- 

 tion. The ore taken from this lode has assayed 

 over $2,000 to the ton. The Eureka district 

 in the Diamond range, east of the White Pine, 

 on both sides of the Humboldt River, produces 

 ores assaying $1,300 to the ton. All these 

 ores have the same general character. They 

 are mostly chlorides of silver, of the class 

 known as horn silver, and can be reduced 

 easily and unexpensively. The southern por- 

 tion of Nevada has been but little explored, 



