456 



THE NETHERLANDS. 



which separated them. An examination of the ground, however, does not furnish 

 any evidence in support of this theory. On the contrary, the wide alluvial valley 

 traversed by the Yssel is bounded on the west by the hills of Veluwe, and rises 

 gently on the east to a height of 40 feet. No traces of a canal have been dis- 

 covered, and the Fossa Drusiana is more likely to have connected the Yssel with 

 the Vecht, which formerly flowed to the northward, debouching on the coast of 

 Friesland. 



Down to the beginning of the seventeenth century the fork of the Rhine lay 



Fig. 251. — The Fobk of the Yssel. 

 Scale 1 : 250,000. 



The non-alluvial formations are shaded. 

 -^>-cx==.==.=-=— _.—>-=—...<,<.» 5 Miles. 



higher up, near the Schenkenschanze. It has been displaced through human 

 agency. It was found that an increasing volume of the water brought down 

 by the Rhine flowed into the Waal, and a time was foreseen when the northern 

 branch would dry up altogether. In order to prevent an occurrence which would 

 have entailed disaster upon a great part of the Netherlands, the engineers regulated 

 the flow of the river in such a manner that two-thirds of its volume lenter the 

 Waal, and one-third the Lower Rhine (Neder Ryn). The latter, however, retains 

 this volume only for a distance of 6 miles, for the Yssel conveys one-third of 



