Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/75

63 RIVERS AND CANALS.] HOLLAND Tn the diluvium must also be included the loess, which occupies a large proportion of the province of Limburg. The whole diluvium comprises 3,308,330 acres, or about 40 percent, of the country, distributed thus: Scandinavian 4^ per cent, mixed diluvium 4, Rhine and Meusc diluvium and Limburg flint diluvium 1, loess 1, and lastly the sand diluvium, which includes the diluvial river- banks, 2,376,770 acres, or about 29 per cent. The older formations, which occupy a very limited area, occur in the east of Guelderland and Overyssel, in the south of Limburg, and in Zealand-Flanders. That they also form the substratum elsewhere, e.g., in Zealand and Brabant, is not improbable. The area of the Tertiary strata is 3425, and of the Secondary 3746 acres. As regards the capabilities of the soil, Holland does not hold an exceptionally favourable position, 34- per cent, of the country consisting of good and about 2 per cent, of inferior clay land, while more than 45 per cent, is poor and partially reclaimed sand, and fully 18 -5 per cent, is covered with fens. The following figures show the account to which the soil is actually turned : 64 3 per cent, consists of arable and pasture land, gardens, hay-fields, and orchards; 6 per cent, is occupied by water and roads ; 7 per cent, is woodland ; 7 is covered with buildings ; and the rest, or 22 per cent, must consequently be assigned to the waste lands, shores, and dunes, the reed -beds, heaths, and fens. The extent of this uncultivated area is of course being gradually diminished by the more general employment of improved methods of drainage, by prevention of the pro gress of the sand-drifts, by reclamation of the fens, by the extension of facilities for the carriage of manures, and by the parcelling out of the mark-lands or commons which are now used only as public pastures or for the digging of turf (plaggeii). The distribution of the cultivated lands in the several provinces is considered below in connexion with the density of the population. The Netherlands are watered by three main rivers the Rhine, the Meuse or Maas, and the Scheldt or Schelde, besides a great number of smaller streams. How the Rhine breaks up into Rhine arid Waal, Rhine and Yssel, Crooked Rhine and Lek, Old Rhine and Vecht, and finally reaches the sea at Katwijk, may be seen from the map ; and also how the Meuse at Gorcum forms a junction with the Waal, flowing on to Dort under the name of the Merwede, and thence continuing to the sea between the South Holland Islands and South Holland, under the names of the North, the Old, and the New Meuse. There too may be traced the course of the Scheldt, with its broad mouths bounding the Zealand Islands and separating them from the mainland of Flanders, or that of the Yssel by Deventer, Zutphen, and Kampen to the Zuyder Zee These great rivers render very important service as water-ways, as the following statistics may show : Breadth. t-4 Depth Slope of the Surface ptr (Minimum). 1000 ft. Name. a 5 Ps At At E
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5 III Mean Level lowest Level At Moan Level. At Flood. 5; 5 ft 1875. 1874. Ft. Ft. Cu. ft. Ft. Ft. Upper Rhine 2483 1260 88,250 5-081 1961 0-101 to 0-131 0-101 to 0-1 5i Wiuil 2588 941 61.775 7-44 3-70 0-10 to 0-15 0-12 to 0-15 Lek 1240 410 17,650 636 2 23 Yssel 984 203 8,825 6-13 0-98 0-10 to 0-13 O l to 14 f Maastricht to Roermond.,.0 40 0-38 Roermond to Meuse 656 541 4,412 462 2 1-772. Venlo 18 0-09 Venloto Grave 0-06 0-11 Grave to Creve- V. coeur 05 0-07 The depths are those of the fairway. The mean velocity seldom exceeds 4 9 feet, but rises to 6 4 feet when the river is high. In the lower reaches of the streams the velocity and slope are of course affected by the tides. In the Waal 1 These figures have reference to the Lower not to tlie Upper Rhine. 2 Below Grave. ordinary high water is perceptible as far up as Bommel; in the Lek the maximum limits of ordinary and spring tides are at Vianen and at Kuilenburg respectively, in the Yssel above the Katerveer and past Wijhe, and in the Meuse near Heusden and at Well. The following table shows the fall at ebb and flood tide respectively in the rivers named : Ft Ft Lower Rhine and Lek, from Pannerden to Krimpen 38 827 and 32 638 Waal and Merwede, from Farmerden to Hard- inxveld 33 479 ,, 31 585 Guelderland Yssel, from Westervoort to Mond Ganzediep 31-06 ,, 31 00 Meuse, from Grave to Woudrichem 13 97 12 56 The fall in the Meuse from Maestricht to Venlo is 107 -05 feet The total length of the navigable channels is 1135 miles, but in certain places sand-banks and shallows not unfrequently impede the shipping traffic at low water during the summer. As a draw back to the services rendered by the rivers must be mentioned the damage inflicted by their inundations and ice-drifts, for protection against which river-dykes were constructed as early as the days of the Romans, and, in the lower reaches, more especially in the course of the 1 1th, 12th, and 13th centuries. It is only in a few places for example, on the right-hand side of the Rliine that elevated banks are found. Elsewhere between the dykes and the stream lie &quot;fore lands&quot; or &quot; outwerders,&quot; which are usually submerged in winter. That the rivers cannot at all times, any more than the sea, be kept under control by the dykes is shown by the floods of 1775, 1776, 1784, 1799, 1809, 1820^ 1861, &c. The smaller streams are often of great importance. Except where they rise in the fens, they call into life a strip of fruitful verdure in the midst of the barren sand, and thus lead to the existence of many villages. The low-lying spaces at the confluences, being readily laid under water, have been not unfrequently chosen as sites for fortresses. As a matter of course, the streams are also turned to account in connexion with the canal system, the Holland Yssel, the Gouwe, the Rotte, the Seine, the Spaarne, the Zaan, the Anistel, the Dieze, the Amer, the Mark, the Vecht, the Zwarte Water (Black-water), the Kuinder, and the numerous Aas in Drenthe and Groningen being the most important in this respect. Largely by means of these natural water-ways the Dutch Canals, have formed for themselves a network of canals, small and great, the united length of which amounts to 1522 miles. The canals diifer greatly in character in the different provinces. In North Brabant and Limburg the Zuid Willemsvaart (South William s canal) unites Maestricht via Weert and Helmond with Bois le Due ( s Hertogenbosch), communicates by aside branch with Eindhoven, and has a connexion with the canal from Maestricht to Liege. In Zealand the canals give the towns of the interior communication with the sea or the river mouths ; for example, canals lead respect ively from Terneuzen to Sas van Gent and to Ghent, from Middle- burg to Veere and from Middleburg to Flushing, from Goes to the Eastern Scheldt, and from Zierikzee also to the Eastern Scheldt. The canal from Hansweert to Wenieldinge has been cut to allow ships to pass between the East and the AVest Scheldt. In South Holland many canals serve the like purpose ; thus the Voorn canal unites the Haringvliet with the New JMeuse, which does not allow the passage of large vessels above Briel ; and similarly on account of the many banks and shallows in front of Helvoetsluys a new water way has been opened up to Rotterdam by widening the channel of the Scheur north of Rozenburg, and cutting across the Hoek van Holland. The Goeree inlet unites that place with the Haringvliet. Of a different character is the Zederik canal, which unites the prin cipal river of central Holland the Lek (at Vianen) by means of the Linge with the Merwede (at Gorcum). As Rotterdam has its new water- way, so in North Holland Amsterdam is connected with Nieuwe Diep by the canal via Purmerend and Alkmaar ; and, this canal being too shallow for the largest class of vessels in cargo, the canal to Ymuiden has been constructed across Holland-op-zyn- smalst (i.e., Holland at its narrowest). Amsterdam is further con nected with the Vecht by the Keulsche Vaart, and with the Lek and the Zederik canal via Utrecht by the Vaart Rhine. In the province of Guelderland Nijkerk inlet unites that town with the sea, and Apeldoorn communicates with Hattem north-east through the Grift canal and south-east with the Yssel through the Dieren canal. A totally different character belongs to the canals in the east and north-east of the country, where, in the absence of great rivers, they form the only water-ways which render possible the drainage of the fens and the export of peat, and unite the lesser streams with each other. Thus in Overyssel the Willemsvaart connects Zwolle and the Zwarte Water with the Yssel, the Dcdems- vaart connects the Vecht with the Zwarte Water near Hasselt, and a canal connects Alinelo with Zwolle. In Dreuthe the Sinildervaart