Draining the Zuider Zee.

Draining the Zuider Zee.

The Zuider Zee is a large gulf penetrating deep into the Netherlands, about 60 miles in length and 210 miles in circumference. A number of small islands—the Texel, Vlieland, Ter Schelling, Ameland, etc.,—reaching in a chain from the most northern point of Holland, are the remains of the former line of coast, which form a breakwater against the North Sea. From Dunkirk in French Flanders to the north of Holland, the interior is defended from the sea by sandhills or. dunes. Here, as at the mouth of the Scheldt, the sand barrier was broken, and the waters overflowing the low lands, separated the province of Friesland from the peninsula of North Holland, and having united with the small inner lake Flevo, formed the present ZuiderZee. The decisive inundation occurred in 1282.

For more than six centuries this encroachment of the sea has been endured, but when the broad ship canal between Amsterdam and the North Sea was successfully opened in 2876, it was proposed to make a dyke from the mouth of the Vssel to Enkhuisen, and drain the central part of the Zuider Zee, making room for 200,000 inhabitants, and adding nearly 500,000 acres to the arable land of the Netherlands. After some years of characteristic deliberation, this project was undertaken, and the Dutch are now steadily draining and pumping out the Zuider Zee. If it is ever all pumped out, they calculate to recover nearly a million acres of valuable land. The salty quality imparted to the soil by the sea water will, it is expected, soon disappear. The cost of the work is estimated at 2000 gulden (about $900) per hectare (2.47 acres). This is figured at a total cost of 190.000,000 gulden ($85,500,000). But if only 250,000 hectares are recovered, at the estimated cost per hectare, the profit would be enormous. It is a great undertaking, but the perseverance and ingenuity of the Dutch will no doubt be successful.