From this branch of the subject M. Drost drainage of the Zuyder Zee, as to which turned to the question of the proposed might record some most interesting infor-motion, but that it has only a remote bearing on our local problems. To expel so vast an are of water from the heart of Holland would ultimately, no doubt, prove itself a very profitable enterprise. It would be the success of the Haarleemmer Meet repeated on a vastly larger scale. But, for a time it would necessarily cause a great displacement of Inbour and capital. The League has already sustained such' opposition' the hands of powerful shipping and fishing interests that they have found it nec
compensation of people who would either to ear-mark five million pes for the have to retire from business or seek a living on other shores. In: the heart of the country over which the Zuyder Zee now rolls there was in the twelfth century a huge fresh-water lake, which is known to history as the Lake of Flevo, and this' the reclamation Patty propose to restore. It would be fed by the waters of the Yesel, one of the branches of the adjacent. provinces would be amply supplied Rhine, and thus Amsterdam and all the
with fresh water. This is one of the most attractive elements in the programme, for most of the country thus to be benefitted is so far below the level of the sea that the water supply is always more or less of a problem. Another unquestionable advantage would be the saving of the immense burden involved in the maintenance of the dykes by which the Zuyder Zee is kept from spreading itself over the provinces of Overyssel, Guelderland, Utrecht, and North Holland. At a few places, as for example between Stavoren and Oude Mer-den, dunes suffice to keep the Zuyder Zee at bay but for the rest the coast is protected by an almost continuous line of dykes. The tops of them are used as a carriage way, and admirably they are adapted for that purpose. There being only just room for one vehicle, there is a bricked-paved pathway. in the middle to take the tread of the horses, and the driver knows, however dark the night, that while he can hear the click-clack of his horse's hoofs he is in no danger of rolling down. the stony slope on one side, which would souse him in the Zuyder Zee, nor down the grassy slope on the other side, which would land' him possibly on the roof of a snug farm-house. As the horse never cuts up that part of the roadway allotted to the wheels there of can be no ruts, no bumpy places—nothing but an unbroken, easy surface.
CURVED BREAKWATERS, From an eminence like this one comes to understand how great a peril is the Zuyder Zee, and how burdensome is the cost of confining it to the limits which it appropriated in. the 12th and 13th centuries when, by a series of inundations, it swallowed up the heart of Holland and drowned some 80,000 Hollanders. The dyke of course is nowhere of such, strength as at Petten and Westkapelle, for the seas. are neither so fast nor 0 fierce; but there are many places, nevertheless, where its dimensions are not a little ssu 1g For example, at Andijk, a cluster of farmhouses and cottages about an hour's drive to the north-west of Enkhuizen, the embankment rises to the height of 16 or 17 ft. above the water line, and such is the depression of the hinterland that a successful invasion of the sea would pretty well drown it to the steeple tops. The tidal conditions. being here very different S} from what they are on the North Sea, there is a corresponding difference in the paving of the seaward slope. The interminable basalt of the ocean dykes gives place to boulders of Norwegian granite, which increase in size as they approach the bottom of the slope. At Andijk they vary in size from an average of 124 cubic inches at the top to 27% cubic inches at the bottom, where, thrown upon a willow framework on the Zinkstukken -principle, they are continued. for several feet along the sea bottom so as to form a toe or apron, and thus save the bank from a process of undermine ing. Here and there it is observable that midway down the slope occurs a strip of basalt. Questioned on this point, Bakker, the surveyor for the local defence authority, or to give him his official designation, Opzichter Van Drechterland, explained that the embankment is subject to heavy seas coming up from the northwest, and that where the action of the water has proved more than ordinarily destructive, it has been deemed advisable to use basalt, the stronger though more expensive material. Everywhere the testimony was in favour of basalt. When it wa' simply a question of keeping swollen waters at bay, us on most of the shores of the Zuyder Zee, Norwegian granite was all sufficient; but where the strain of breakers and the wash of swift currents had to be dealt with basalt. was refer- be able by far. Fronting the embankment at Andjik there are breakwaters without projecting piles. They are bent with o pronounced curve to the south-west, the idea being apparently that the most dangerous seas, those which come up from the north-west, can thus be fended off the dyke. Elsewhere, where the set of the currents is different, the breakwaters curve in other directions. It is observable that from point to point there is considerable variety in the inclination of the seaward slopes. Everywhere the theory appears to rule that where the onset of the s is strongest the inclination must be longest. At places the slope has all the steepness of an English alway embankment; at other points, the Zuyder Zee are wont to expend them-those upon which the main currents of
selves, there is a gentleness of inclination that to some small extent suggests Petten and Westkapell
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.