Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/71

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PART I.—GEOGRAPHY AND STATISTICS.

   OLLAND is the most usual English name of the country which is nationally designated the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Koningrijk der Nederlanden). The word, which is popularly explained as if it were Hollowland, and referred to the same physical fact which has given rise to the terms Netherlands and the Low Countries, appears in an older form as Holtland, and is thus evidently equivalent to Wood-land. In French the usual expression is Pays-Bas, and in German Niederlande. There is no country in Europe in which the character of the territory has exercised so great an influence on the inhabitants as in the Netherlands ; and, on the other hand, no people has so extensively modified the condition of its territory as the Dutch. In a description of Holland, con sequently, the greatest importance must be attached to the physical conformation of the country as it was and is ; and most of the peculiarities of the political and social condition of the people must be considered in connexion with this con formation. The size of Holland, being subject to perpetual diminu tion and increase, cannot be indicated by a definite figure except as at some definite period ; on the one hand, there is loss of area still going on in consequence of the erosion of the coasts, and, on the other hand, this is more than counterbalanced by a continual acquisition of new ground due more especially to &quot; impoldering &quot;and draining operations. In 1833 the surface of the Netherlands was only 2,270,959 hectares (5,611,860 acres, 8768 square miles); oa the 20th Oct. 1877, at the time of the conclusion of the cadastral survey, it was 3,297,268 hectares (8,148,020 acres, 12,731 square miles). The kingdom extenis from 53 32 21&quot; (Groningen Cape on Rottum Island) to 50&quot; 45 49&quot; N. lat. (Mesch in the province of Limburg), and from 3 23 27&quot; (Sluis in the provinc3 of Zealand) to 7 12 20&quot; E. long. (Langiik- kerschans in the province of Groningen). The greatest length from north to south, viz., that from Rottum Island to Eysden near Maastricht is estimated at 164 miles, and the greatest breadth from south-west to north-east, or from Zvvin near Sluis to Losser in Overyssel at 144 miles. If the Zuyder Zee, the parts of Prussia which encroach on the eastern side, and the projecting portions of Limburg and Zealmd are disregarded, the general form is almost an ob long. With the exception of Greece and Great Britain, no country of Europe has so many inlets of the sea as Holland. The Netherlands are bounded on the E. by the Prussian provinces of Hanover, Westphalia, and the province of the Rhine, and on the S. by the Belgian provinces of Lie&quot;ge, Limburg, Antwerp, and East and West Flanders. A purely geographical boundary is formed to the W. and the N. by the North Sea, at the N.E. corner by the Dollart, and from Stevensweert southward to the extreme corner of Limburg (near Eysden) by the Maas or Meuse. Natural ethno graphic frontiers, such as occur where two neighbouring peoples of different origin, race, character, customs, and languige are sharply marked off from each other, do not exist in the case of the Netherlands. The Low German element, indeed, of which the Netherlands form as it were the kernel, spreads beyond Dutch limits both north-east along the coast of the German Ocean and south-west into Belgium. As regards the seaward boundary the coasts, river-mouths, and islands it is necessary, for a just comprehension of its character and of its influence on the formation of the soil, to bear in rnind that the coasts of the Netherlands shared in the general vicissitudes of the southern shores of the German Ocean at the time when the English Channel was still closed. Three periods may be distin guished in the history of these changes. During the first a row of dunes was formed on the sandy tongue of land which, beginning at Ostend, cut off and formed into an inland lake a portion of the German Ocean, at that time washing the diluvial strata ; these are still indicated along the Dutch and the German coasts by a series of dune-formations, sandbanks, and islands. In the second period the separation between ocean and lake was still maintained, the river-water gained the upper hand over the sea-water in the lake, the matter brought down by the river began to settle, and the morasses and beds of marsh-plants, reeds, and rushes (derrie) were formed which are now found above the old sand beds and below the present clay beds. When in the third period the coasts subsided, the dunes were here and there carried away by the rise of the waters, portions of the land were submerged, and, mud being extensively piled up by the sea, the fertile clay (zeeklei) of the maritime provinces was formed, and at the same time the mouths of the rivers were changed in position. And all this took place on a still greater scale when the limestone rocks which united Calais and Dover at last gave way and the great ocean with its heavier incidence of billows and tides drove into the smaller sea. According to Dr Hartogh Heys van Zouteveen, 150,000 hectares (370,670 acres) of land were lost on the coast of the German Ocean, 385,000 hectares (951,390 acres) on the Zuyder Zee and the Wadden, 8432 hectares (20,836 acres) in the Dollart, 10,000 hectares (2J,711 acres) in the Biesbosch, and about 27,000 hectares (66,720 acres) more in other parts. According to Dr Staring, the province of Groningen, even during the 18th and 19th centuries, has been harassed with inundations once in every 155 years, Utrecht and North Holland south of the Y once in 83 years, South Holland once in 55 years, Friesland, Overyssel, North Holland north of the Y, and the coast of North Brabant every 40 years ; while the Netherlands in general have been visited by such disasters in 1702, 1715, 1717, 1741, 1755, 1756, 1791, 1808, 1809, and 1825, or on an average once in every eleven years. In this last period, however, of the history of the land the lordship of man ultimately began to make itself felt. The formation of the first dykes to prevent inundations was quickly followed by the construction of a connected system of earthen ram parts, behind which the country lies secure, while at the same time hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land have been recovered from the sea. The area gained from 1833 to 1877 has been already stated. The follow ing table shows the amount reclaimed by endyking down to the dates given:—

In North Holland, to 1864 72,283 acres. South Holland Islands, to 1850 168,302 Friesland, 36,368 Groningen, ,, 86,838 North Brabant, to 1843 95,391 Zealand, to 1859 220,411

To return to the present condition of the seaboard of the Netherlands, it follows from what has been said 