No. 4.] HOLLAND AND ITS PEOPLE. 75 



These two peoples have since been united into one race, the 

 Dutch race, which has occupied the soil until the present 

 time, but only by a constant and stubborn conflict with both 

 nature and man. At times it has seemed as if the forces of 

 nature were as deadly intent upon driving the people from the 

 region as they had been upon the destruction of the ancient 

 forests, while at other times it has appeared as if they had 

 conspired with all that was cruel and tyrannical in their hu- 

 man foes to crush them out of existence. The resistance of 

 the people, however, has been a noble one. Leaving their 

 savage habits, they sought the advancing arts and culture of 

 a civilized life. They kept back the waters of the tyrant 

 sea b}^ massive walls, they tixed boundaries to their vaga- 

 bond rivers, dried up their interior seas, and thus they trans- 

 formed that which by nature was only a worthless quagmire 

 into one of the most fertile and productive countries of 

 Europe. It is in Holland, the northern part of that Nether- 

 land plain, that we may to-day meet with the same peculiar 

 Dutch people at home, and there it is that we may see the 

 best evidence of their conquering industry. I therefore take 

 pleasure in presenting to you this evening Holland and its 

 people as the world's best example of the conquest of man 

 over territory. 



We will begin our more detailed study by examining a 

 map which represents Holland with the North Sea upon the 

 west, Prussia on the east and Belgium on the south. This 

 country is situated in a latitude which is as far north as the 

 eastern angle of Labrador. The entire kingdom is farther 

 north than the northernmost extremity of the island of New- 

 foundland. In form it is extremely irregular. It is about 

 one hundred and fifty miles across from north to south, and 

 it is about one hundred and twenty miles between its most 

 eastern and most western extremities of land. It contains an 

 area of about thirteen thousand square miles, and it supports 

 a population of about five millions of people. Its surface 

 is that of a })lain. There are no mountains in Holland, and 

 but few hills, and these are mostly sand-hills, scattered along 

 its coast, while there are a few in the south-eastern corner. 



Upon a physical map the features which most attract our 

 attention are the rivers. First there is the classic river of 



