( 472 ) 
was again succeeded by an equally great subsidence. In consequence 
of this rise the lagoon was almost converted into dry land, the 
water became fresh, and a peat vegetation filled the lagoon. This 
peat continued to grow during the slow sinking that followed, till 
it reached the thickness of ± 6 meters, which it now has. 
Now the second, historical part of the holocene follows. The 
transporting power of the rivers is slight, and modified by man in 
a sense unfavourable for the accumulation of deposits by canalisation 
and normalisation of the rivers. The sinking continues and the loss 
of land is accelerated by the rapid wearing away of the dunes on 
the sea-side, and more inland by floods caused by storms. A sub¬ 
sidence of the soil in historic times is proved by the situation of 
structures of Roman origin, as the Brittenburg near Katwijk, and the 
Nehelennia temple near Domburg, which were still inhabited A. D. 
300, as appears from the coins found there, and which therefore 
cannot have been below A.P. then, whereas now they are resp. 
1,5 and 4 m. below that level. For a continuous sinking also in 
later ages, between 1300 and 1750, urgently pleads also the fact 
that the polders lie the deeper below A.P. as it is longer since they 
were drained. This is sometimes ascribed to a prolonged shrinking 
of the ground, but the conditions which give rise to this phenomenon, 
are only realised in the upper portion of the ground of the polder 
which lies now above the artificially lowered level of the ground- 
water, while it is difficult to imagine dessiccation and shrinking in 
consequence of it in the deeper lying portions of the ground, which 
are perfectly saturated with water. Thus it seems very unlikely that 
shrinking can have given rise to any considerable lowering of the 
ground, and can have continued for several ages. 
The exact amount’ of the sinking in historic times cannot be 
determined with perfect certainty, but it may be assumed that it 
was greater in the north of the country than in the south, wheras the 
estimations vary between 25 and 90 cm. per century 1 ). 
If we finally proceed to recent history, say of the last two 
centuries, it strikes us that investigations about the relative position 
of the land with regard to the sea-level during that time have led 
to divergent results. 
LoriIs assumes that the subsidence of the soil of the Netherlands 
came to a (temporary) stop in the middle of the 16 th century, which 
took place somewhat earlier in Belgium according to Rutot. 
_ Ram akr 2 ) has derived from observations on gauges, carried out 
*> Bf. Jonker’s list No. 313, 782, 785, 810, 913. , 
*) B. Ramaer. De daling van den bodem van Nederland. Verb. Kon. Inst t 
van Ingenieurs 1907/08, p. l. 
