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 ZUTPHEN with this commission he traversed Spain, Si- cily, and Italy. His Anales de la corona de Aragon (6 vols. fol., Saragossa, 1562-'79 ; com- pleted in 6 vqls. fol., 1610, and in 7 vols., 1669) embraces the period extending from the rise of the kingdom after the Arabian con- quest to the death of Ferdinand the Catholic. ZCTPHEN, a city of the Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland, situated on the Yssel at the mouth of the Berckel, 17 m. N. E. of Arnheiri; pop. in 1869, 14,554. It is very strongly fortified; the ancient ramparts are planted with trees, and form a fine promenade. The principal edifices of note are the fine Gothic church of St. Walburga, erected in 1105, which contains a library of very old books; the city hall, with five facades; the state hall ; and the public weighing house, the tower of which has a chime of 36 bells. There is trade in timber and colonial products. The town is of great antiquity. It belonged to the bishops of Utrecht in the 13th century, and in the 14th joined the Hanseatic league. It was subjected to terrible sufferings by the Spaniards in 1573, and was taken by Maurice of Nassau in 1591, and by the French in 1672. It was on the battle field of "Warnsfeld, very near this city, that Sir Philip Sidney was mor- tally wounded in 1586, while the enemy was defeated under the walls of Zutpheu. ZUYDER ZEE, or Zuider Zee (South sea), a bay or gulf on the coast of Holland, so named be- cause it is separated by the islands of Texel, Vlieland, Ter Schelling, and Ameland from the North sea or German ocean. It is bounded N. W. and N. by the islands already named, E. by Friesland and Overyssel, S. E. by Gelder- land, and S. and W. by Utrecht and North Hol- land; length from N. to S. about 80 m., greatest breadth about 35 m. A projecting peninsula partially divides it near the middle, S. of which it expands to its greatest width. At its S. "W. extremity an arm called the Y branches off and extends into the province of North Holland; it is navigable by vessels of considerable size, and forms the harbor of Amsterdam. Formerly tBis arm extended W. to within a few miles of the North sea, but most of it has recently been drained. The shores of the Zuyder Zee on the east and southeast are several feet above the sea level, but those on the west are only protected from inundation by strong dikes. The : sea is gener- ally deep enough for vessels drawing not over 15 or 18 ft., but navigation is obstructed by shoals. The most important tributary is the Yssel. In the time of the Romans the Zuyder Zee was a low swampy lake called Flevo, and communi- cated with the North sea by a stream bearing the name of Flevum. In 1219 a severe inun- dation took place in consequence of continued N. W. winds, broke down the dikes, and made considerable encroachments on the land. In 1282 a still more terrible one occurred, which submerged 72 towns and villages and drowned nearly 100,000 persons. By this calamity it ZWEIBEUOKEN 839 became an arm of the sea, and attained its present dimensions. Investigations have re- cently been made at the expense of the Dutch government with a view to the drainage of m$st of the southern half of the sea, and the state commission has pronounced the scheme practicable. It is proposed to construct an enormous dike, extending from Enkhuisen on the W. shore to the island of Urk, and thence to the E. shore at Kampen, a total distance of about 25 m. The basin thus en- closed would embrace nearly 800 sq. m. or about 500,000 acres, an area nearly equal to that of the province of Limburg. The bottom consists of thick beds of rich alluvium tra- versed by great banks of sand, one of which forms the line of the projected dike, and would serve as its foundation. Nearly the whole of the land, it is thought, would be suitable for cultivation. The plan contemplates a network of canals and watercourses, and the time re- quired for the whole undertaking is variously estimated at from 12 to 20 years, and the cost in round numbers at about $50,000,000. See Visite aux villes mortes du Zuyderzee, by Henri Havard (Paris, 1875; English translation by Annie Wood, London, 1875), and Le desseche- ment du Zuyderzee, by George Herelle, in the Revue des Deux Mondes, Nov. 15, 1875. ZWEIBRl'CKEN (Lat. Bipontium ; Fr. Deux- Ponts), a city of Bavaria, in the Rhenish Palatinate, on the Erbach, 40 m. W. by S. of Spire; pop. in 1871, 8,395, three fourths of whom were Protestants. Its names, each meaning two bridges, are derived from the situation of its ancient castle between two bridges over the Erbach. The city consists of the Altstadt, Neustadt, and Untere Vorstadt, the finest of all. The most notable churches are the Alexanderskirche and the Karlskirche, built by Charles IX. of Sweden. The ducal palace, in the 17th century one of the most magnificent in Germany, was in 1868 converted into a palace of justice. The Little Chateau contains the national stud. There are a gym- nasium and a school of trades. Cloth, silk, chiccory, machines, and other articles are man- ufactured. A celebrated series of the classics, called the Bipont editions, was published here in the latter part of the last century. About 2 m. from the city are the ruins of the chateau built by King Stanislas Leszczynski. Zwei- brucken was an independent county till 1394, when after the extinction of the local counts it formed part of the Palatinate. In 1410, after the division of the electoral territory on the death of the emperor and elector,. Rupert, it became a duchy under his third son Stephen, who founded the line of Pfalz-Zweibrucken. Charles Gustavus, an offspring of this house, in 1654 succeeded Queen Christina on the throne of Sweden, to which this duchy was annexed. In 1718, after the death of Charles XII., it passed to the count palatine Gustavus Samuel Leopold of the Klenburg line ; and as tie left no issue, it subsequently reverted to the