276 



NA TURE 



[JANUARY 23, ig02 



being put at 15J millions. A translation of the Bill and 

 explanatory memorandum of the Minister of the Water- 

 staat are also given. 



Thisscheme foraddingland to the seven provincesof the 

 United Netherlands is only a continuation of those blood- 

 less conquests which Holland has been carrying on for 

 the last twenty centuries, by which, little by little, the 

 cultivated area of the country has been enlarged without 

 annexation, or encroachment on neighbouring countries. 



Holland affords the most remarkable example of the 

 operations of Nature in that process of destruction and 

 reconstruction of the earth on which we live that is 

 always in process. The land is almost entirely composed 

 of the oft' scourings of Swiss, (".erman and French 

 territory washed off the land by the rain, transported 

 several hundred miles by the rixers Rhine, .Scheldt and 

 Maas, and dumped by them into the North Sea, until a 

 delta was formed and the shore advanced seaward 130 

 miles for a width of 60 miles. So long as the storms of 

 the North Sea beat on this delta the fine particles of 

 alluvium were washed away by the waves and carried to 

 the still water of the deeper parts of the ocean, leaving 

 only sand behind. The wind then became an active 

 agent in the making of the land by lifting and trans- 

 porting shorewards the material off the long stretch of 

 bare sands exposed at low water, and gradually heaping 

 it up in the form of sand hills, constituting that long 

 line of dunes which extends the whole length of the sea- 

 board for 230 miles and forms the main protecting 

 barrier of the land from the incursion of the sea during 

 storms and high tides. The delta thus sheltered and 

 protected became one vast warping ground over which 

 the rivers continued to deposit their burden of rich allu- 

 vium, gradually building up a soil of marvellous fertility. 



Through the surface thus raised the water poured into 

 the delta found its way to sea through innumerable 

 channels which finally concentrated in three main open- 

 ings through the dunes. The surface thus became an 

 amphibious country, half land and half water, divided 

 by numerous channels into islands. At the time when 

 historical records begin some of these islands had risen 

 above the level of the tides, and the country consisted of 

 large alluvial plains the greater part below mean sea 

 level, large meres or lakes from 1 5 to 20 feet deep, and 

 deep winding channels, the whole bordered by the higher 

 plains on the south and east composed of sand and drift. 



At this epoch man stepped in to gather the fruits of 

 that which the contending forces of rain and rivers, 

 storms and tempest, wind and tides had produced. 



The Roman records afford some outline of the condition 

 of Holland at this time, from which it is known that 

 early in the Christian era the higher diluvial lands, dunes 

 and heaths were occupied by the ISatavians, who gained 

 a precarious living by hunting, fishing, and pasturing 

 cattle in summer on the alluvial islands. 



Whether the first embanking and reclamation was 

 done by the 15atavians or by the Romans is uncertain, 

 but records exist showing that the latter, recognising the 

 value of these rich lands for corn growing, commenced a 

 system of reclamation by making more direct channels 

 for the flood waters, and embanking the lands. 



This system of reclaiming the land of the delta has 

 gone on persistently ever since. At first only the higher 

 lands were embanked, but as population increased the aid 

 of science was invoked, and mechanical agency was applied 

 to the raising of the water from the shallower meres and 

 lakes, the motive power being the wind. For four and 

 a half centuries the fens and morasses, lakes and old 

 river beds which had been converted into cultivated 

 land were kept dry by the aid of innumerable windmills 

 studded all over the country, some of the deeper polders 

 requiring three engines, at different levels, to raise and 

 discharge the water. About sixty years ago steam power 

 was added to that of the wind, being first used for the 



NO. 1682, VOL. 65] 



drainage of Lake Harlem, by which 45,000 acres of rich 

 land were recovered and a new province of 10,000 

 inhabitants added to the country. What was once a 

 lake from 15 to 20 feet deep is now the great market 

 garden of Amsterdam. " And so by the skill and genius 

 of man there was thus driven from the bosom of the 

 country a most dangerous enemy, and a province was 

 conquered without tears and without bloodshed, the 

 engineer taking the place of the general and the navvy 

 that of the soldier.'' 



Such is the physical history of the provinces of Holland 

 known as the United Netherlands, which has a popula- 

 tion of nearly five millions and covers an area of 12,738 

 square miles, of which about two-thirds consist of re- 

 claimed lands, intersected by a system of main drains 

 and navigable canals extending to a length of 2050 miles. 

 The annual budget for the maintenance of these drains 

 and banks amounts to 500,000/. 



The land thus obtained has, however, only been held 

 by one long-continued struggle between man and Nature : 

 the ocean attempting to regain the land over which it 

 had dominion, and the rivers striving to break through 

 the barriers that have been imposed on them, the skill 

 and perseverance of the Dutchmen being exercised in 

 holding that which they had gained by the most careful 

 guarding and watching. 



For nearly twenty centuries the fight has been going on, 

 from time to time the land being attacked both from the 

 sea and land. At different periods the rivers, resenting 

 the limits within which their waters have been restrained, 

 have burst their bounds and flooded the country. This 

 has generally happened after the breaking up of some great 

 frost, when the water, flowing down in enormous volumes, 

 has brought with it broken ice-drifts which, blocking 

 in some bend or other obstruction, have stopped the pro- 

 gress of the flood. When this occurs the water finds relief 

 by running over the top of the banks or breaking through 

 them, covering thousands of acres and inundating villages 

 and homesteads. Thus in the fifteenth century the 

 Rhine burst its banks and flooded 100,000 acres and 

 seventy villages. In another great flood nearly the whole 

 of Holland was inundated and 400,000 lives were lost, the 

 country being so depopulated owing to this vast loss of 

 life that the damage done could not be made good, or 

 the prosperity of the country restored, for many years. 



Even more disastrous than the land floods have been 

 the breaches made in the sand-hills and sea-dykes by 

 abnormal high tides, due to gales lasting over several 

 days, driving the water upon the shore. It was owing to 

 one of these great storms, at the latter end of the thir- 

 teenth century, which lasted for several days, that the 

 water of the North Sea was raised to an unprecedented 

 height and driven by the north-west gale on the sand- 

 banks which protected the north coast, breaking through 

 these in several places and inundating an enormous tract 

 of country lying behind. By this breach the province of 

 Friesland was separated from that of North Holland, and 

 the water, uniting with Lake Flevo, formed the Zuiderzee, 

 a vast inland salt-water sea 80 miles long and in places 30 

 miles wide. Remains of the original coast-line exist in 

 the islands of Texel, \'lieland. Tor Schelling and 

 Ameland. In the Zee the higher parts of the inundated 

 land are now marked by the islands of Wieringen, 

 Schakland, Marken and L'rk, the latter of which is so 

 little above the level of the sea that the greater part of it 

 is covered with water whenever extraordinarily high tides 

 occur, the houses and church standing on mounds slightly 

 elevated above the rest of the island. Numerous villages, 

 with their churches and homesteads, which once con- 

 tained a numerous population, now lie buried beneath 

 the waters of the Zuider/ee, and it is stated that 80,000 

 of the inhabitants lost their lives. 



For more than six centuries the area then drowned has 

 remained an inland sea, on which a numerous fishing 



