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The National Geographic Magazine 



previous inundations. These catastro- 

 phes, attended with the loss of thou- 

 sands and thousands of lives, fill many 

 a sad page in the history of the country. 

 Dike-building became a serious matter 

 and began to receive the attention which 

 it had long needed. Flimsy dikes and 

 levees were gradually transformed into 

 heavier structures, and the physical out- 

 lines of the Netherlands were thus ren- 

 dered more permanent and may be said 

 to have suffered little change since that 

 tirhe. 



The province of North Holland about 

 the year 1288, although extensively pro- 

 tected by numerous dikes, was dissected 

 by bodies of water of all sizes, such as the 

 Schermer, the Beemster, the Purmer,the 

 Starnmeer, the lakes west of Alkmaar, 

 and the I^angemeer, connecting with 

 each other, and also with the Zuider Zee 

 at several points. It was possible in 

 those da3^s to navigate from Amsterdam 

 westward through the Ij , then through 

 the lakes mentioned, and return by way 

 of the Zuider Zee, without finding an 

 obstacle in the form of a dike, or as much 

 as a lock. With the expansion of Ivake 

 Flevo into a wide-mouthed inlet of the 

 North Sea, the action of the dreaded 

 tides and storms of the latter were car- 

 ried into the very heart of the country, 

 thereby raising considerably the levels in 

 the lakes before mentioned and threat- 

 ening new inundations. To remedy this 

 dangerous situation, the three channels 

 connecting the lakes with the Zuider Zee 

 were closed by means of heavy dams 

 dviring the years 1311-1400. In the 

 main, however, the aspect of the coun- 

 try changed little between 1288 and 

 1575. Before the beginning of the sev- 

 enteenth century there probably was felt 

 little need of securing additional arable 

 land ; possibly pecuniary difficulties for- 

 bade the expenditure of the large sums 

 required for draining the lakes, and 

 more likely difficulties of a technical 

 nature stood in the way. At any rate, 

 the lakes drained during the fifteenth 



and sixteenth centuries were few in 

 number. About the middle of the fif- 

 teenth century windmills for raising 

 water were coming into use in Holland. 

 These were at first of a primitive char- 

 acter and of low power, but they were 

 applied to the pumping out of lakes in 

 process of reclamation. 



RECLAIMING THE LAND 



The great period for reclaiming land, 

 however, did not begin until the early 

 part of the seventeenth century, at a 

 time when prosperity returned in Hol- 

 land and great enterprises of divers char- 

 acter were begun. With the revived 

 interest in agriculture and cattle-raising,' 

 the rich soils covered by the lakes be- 

 came valuable, and every effort was 

 made to drain them or to keep them 

 within the smallest limits. This became 

 urgent for the further reason that new 

 lakes were constantly being created by 

 the digging away of the peat for fuel. 

 Between the years 1607 and 1643 six- 

 teen lakes were permanently drained, 

 adding to the territory of the Nether- 

 lands, within the space of 36 years, an 

 area of 91 square miles, or nearly 60,000 

 acres. 



All these lakes were drained with the 

 aid of windmills. A lake was first in- 

 closed by a dike to cut it off from sur- 

 rounding bodies of water. This work 

 was always of a difficult nature, con- 

 suming much time and money, as it 

 frequently happened that during some 

 storm the dike gave way. The inclos-. 

 ing dike once completed, the windmills, 

 constructed in the meantime, commenced 

 draining off the water into adjacent wa- 

 terways. These latter were properly 

 connected with each other to keep up 

 the navigation in that section of the 

 country and to carry off the water 

 pumped out of the lake. Such a sys- 

 tem of communicating waterways and 

 canals is collectively known as a 

 ' ' bosom, ' ' and they in their turn dis- 



