The Coolidge examiner., 1934-01-19
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. d. C-WNU Service.

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. d. C.-WNU Service
M ITTH the recent completion
Wv of the 20-mile dixie, shutting
out the North sea, the Zui-
der Zee (South sea) becomes a lake
called the Ijsselmeer. 1t is a much
smaller body of water because $780,
600 acres of the old Zuider Zee bed
are being reclaimed to furnish need
ed land for The Netherlands fast
growing population.
The Zuider Zee itself was small
lake fed by a mouth of the Rhine
river in pre-Roman days, discharg-
ing its surplus water through four
or five small creeks into the North
sea. Later it spread itself over the
surrounding region. Nobody could
prevent it's flooding its way from
the center outward through swampy
country. nor could anybody in those
days keep the North sea from
plunging its breakers into the
creeks, undermining their banks
and widening their channels.
But the area of dry land between
the slowly rising lake and the mar
row strip Of sand dunes along the
North sea shore, never large enough
to feed an ever-increasing popula-
tion, soon became too small for
comfort. Besides, by conquering
others, some of the warning counts
and barons succeeded in assuming
authority over parts of the coun-
try large enough to crystalline the
necessary nuclei of civilization and
to try experiments in wholesale en-
gineering.
About the time matters were put
right In the western part Of the
country, there was succession of
gales from the northwest, and
when they had calmed down Lake
Flevo (for so 1t was called) and
the North sea had combined into
an inland sea covering an area of
about 100000 acres, from which
only two diluvial hilltops emerged :
the islands of Urk and Wieringen.
The narrow belt of sand dunes had
been broken into string of small
islands by deep and widening chan
nels, through which the tidal
streams surged in and out every q
hours.
There the Dutch were, with a
young and spirited Mediterranean
right in the place where every other
self-respecting country has its cen
ter
They Made an Inland Sea.
what are we to do with it?' peo-
pie asked one another on that
memorable February morning when
at last the Azores anti-cyclone re-
asserted itself, and the sun rose
over choppy sea covered with the
timber and straw of many houses
as houses went in those days-and
a lot Of bodies, too. The flooded
area had been a densely populated
stretch of country yielding splendid
crops quite in a natural way.
OF course they could not do any
thing with their newborn Zuider
Zee (South sea), but they took jolly
good care at least that it did not
grow into an ocean. They put big
dam around it, right on the spot
where the water had been highest,
and tried to forget their quarrels
when a fresh string of depressions
was felt moving across the Allan
tic. They kept their dixie in order
before all other things, and even
from time to time reclaimed muddy
banks and bays and what are called
wheels e., the circumference
of eddies forming on the inside OF
flooded stretch of higher land.
Comparison of a map Of 1400 with
one Of 1900 discloses that a lot had
been done by these gangs of nav.
vies-both medieval and modern
and by the southwesterly winds
carefully trained to turn Dutch
four-bladed mills, to restore 8
stream-line like quality to the ragged
boundaries of the Zuider Zee.
Start of the Reclamation.
For five or six centuries at least
Dutch engineers had to be content
with keeping the Zuider Zee within
bounds and improving the windmill
driven drainage system of the low.
lying districts. Between wars, they
amused themselves by thinking out
plans for reversing the circulation
Of water for purposes of inunda.
ton, thereby exacting watchdog
service, as it were, from "the say.
age wolf gnawing at the heart of
Holland" as some poet puts it. In
this way they got rid of a good
many invading armies.
Besides keeping the dikes in re
pair under the cooperative scheme