The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-05
DRIVING BACK THE SEA.

1t is we'll known that Holland once
comprised much larger area of dry
land than it does now, and that the
Dutch have not only managed to save
the remnant by an elaborate dixie eys-
tenn, but have gradually reclaimed con-
siderable sections of what was lost, the
amount already recovered being $50
square miles. Now they propose to gain
750 miles more by the reclamation of
large part of the Zuider Zee. An as.
ISOLATION formed for that purpose has
submitted its plans to royal commits
sion.
At the beginning of our era and for
many centuries afterward the area now
comprehended in the Zuider Zee was
covered by tract of forest country, en-
closing an expanse of fresh water named
Lake Flevo A series of foundations
beginning in ITO and ending in 1895
resulted in the submergence of this re-
gion; even now the ships that sail over
the drowned forests occasionally get
their anchors caught in the tangled
roots of the buried trees, Many towns
that sprang up on the coasts of the new
ly made Zuider Zee became in process
of time thriving seaports. Stavoren, for
instance, which now has but 100 houses,
ranked as one Of the principal Hanse
towns in the sixteenth century. Enk-
huizen, which at present has but 5,000
once had 10000 inhabitants. and Hoorn,
the population of which has shrunk to
10000, formerly had fleets on every sea
and warehouses throughout the Indies.
The gradually increasing disuse of the
Zuider Zee as an outlet for commerce
has been due partly to the distractions
to navigation offered by the shifting
shoals and sand banks, but mainly to
the transfer Of the trade of Amsterdam
to the North Holland Canal and Ship
Canal, which connect the Dutch com
mercial capital with the German Ocean.
The first step in the process of recla-
nation will be to convert large part of
the Zuider Zee into fresh water lake,
by means of a colossal sea wall running
from North Holland to Friesland, shut
ting out the tides of the North Sea.
This will be 216 feet wide at the base,
and it's top II feet above the level of the
sea at Amsterdam, The sea barred out
the next move will be to enclose within
separate entertainments four different
areas, containing $50 square miles. The
four polders, as lands redeemed in this
way are called, will not be filled up, but
enlptied by pumping the water up to
successfully higher levels until it finds
passage by the main channel to the
sea. AS the shallower portions are ex-
posed, they will be progressively brought
under cultivation, and it is calculated
that within ten years from the begin
ming of the work $4,000 acres can be
made annually available. To avoid too
heavy drain on national resources, the
7hole labor of reclamation is to be
spread over term of thirty three years.
The Zuider Zee will be reduced to CEN
trail channel of fifteen miles in breath,
called the Ysselmeer, communicating,
first, with the sea by locks at Wieringen;
secondly, with Amsterdam by branch
three miles in width, and lastly, with
the mouth of the Yssel by similar
shorter arm. One effect of this great
work will be to leave many of the exist
ing seaports high and dry; but their
commerce has long been in a declining
condition, and is not worth preserving.