2 20 The National Geographic Magazine 



of the Netherlands. The rivers found 

 their way to the ocean through numerous 

 tortuous channels, but there remained in 

 the center of the country a small lake, 

 called by the Romans at a later period 

 ' ' Take Flevo. ' ' Thus the soil of the 

 Netherlands, having been formed in part 

 by alluvial deposits and in part by the 

 formation of peat beds, cannot be called 

 a delta formation, in the strict sense of 

 that physiographic term, however much 

 its appearance in a general way may re- 

 semble that of a delta. 



The earliest records make mention of 

 this region as a low, marshy, and heavily 

 timbered area, protected against the tides 

 of the North Sea by ridges of sandhills, 

 and subject to flooding by both fresh and 

 salt waters. 



THE FIRST DIKE-BUILDERS IN HOL- 

 LAND 



The first inhabitants of this inhospita- 

 ble region were nomadic tribes of Ger- 

 manic origin, known as the Catts and 

 the Caninefates, and they must be re- 

 garded as the pioneers of dike-building. 

 Though dwelling at first on the higher 

 •eastern lands of older formation, it is 

 known that they finally settled in the 

 lowlands, where, exposed to the constant 

 danger of inundations, they soon learned 

 to protect their lives and propert}^ by the 

 building of levees. 



Perhaps Holland in those days was 

 not as undesirable a piece of land as it 

 might prove in these days. At any rate, 

 as early as 400 years before the com- 

 mencement of this era, the Romans had 

 begun its conquest, and were undertak- 

 ing a number of improvements, the mag- 

 nitude of which leave no doubt as to the 

 value they put on their new acquisi- 

 tion. About 10 B. C. the Roman general 

 Claudius Drusus, in order to relieve the 

 Rhine of a part of its burden, connected 

 it with the Ijsel by means of an artificial 

 canal, which may safely be said to have 

 been the first canal dug by the hand of 



man in Holland. According to Tacitus, 

 the Roman general Germanicus, a son 

 of Drusus, is said to have transported 

 his army down the canal on floats con- 

 structed with the timber cut from the 

 forests. Again, history tells us that the 

 same general Drusus caused a levee to 

 be built along the middle arm of the 

 Rhine, in order to protect the province 

 then called Bat-Aue ( ' ' good land ' ' ) 

 against the inundations caused in spring 



The Netherlands of Today and the 

 State of Ohio compared 



b}^ ice jams on the rivers. This same 

 levee was completed some years later by 

 general Paulinius Pompeus, and ex- 

 tended to the mouth of the Rhine at 

 Katwijk, where there existed a gap in 

 the dunes through which the Rhine dis- 

 charged into the sea. 



At some distance from its mouth, on 

 the inland side of the dunes, the Romans- 

 constructed a large castle, known as 

 Castle te Britten, and on an island in the 

 estuary they erected a light-house, which 

 bore the name of General Caligula, The 

 castle is of interest because from, the 

 present location of its ruins important 



