DRAINING THE ZUYDER ZEE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 278, 20 August 1919, Page 7

DRAINING THE ZUYDER ZEE

CENTURIES OLD DREAM TO BE MATERIALISED FORECAST OF THE TASK The simple announcement from Amsterdam, the other, day, to the effect that ihe draining of the Zuyder Zee had been begun at Medemblik, marked a definite period m tho progress of a scheme whioh has been, off and on, in the forefront of practical politics in Holland for ovor seventy years (comments the "Gnristian Science Monitor"). It has probably been a dream for a very much longer time than that, for centuries in fact, for - the Dutch have always been , great engineers, but it was in the year .1849 that tho first definite proposal waa put -forward. Nothing came of this or 'of subsequent proposals, 1 save an ever-increasing enlightenment on the subject, and an ever-growing determination amongst the enlightened that one day the great scheme really would be launched and carried triumphantly .to achievement. And so, in' 1866, the Zuyder Zco Association was formed, and it is largely due to the untiring efforts of this association that a beginning has, at - last, befin made ,on a work- which, when complete.'will £0 n lonS way toward right-1 ing the wrong which the North ' Sea | committod on Holland, curiously enough, just 700 years ago. ' Prior to 1219, tho whole region .extending south to Naarden from Tcxel, Vlielaiid. and' Terschelling, the first threo of - that long line of islands which extends round tho north-west coast of Holland. was good dry land. Marshes there were, to be sure, lakes, swamps, and what not of the. kind, but it was land like the rest of Holland, filled with nourishing yillages and cities, with farms spreading themsslves over, the country side. Then, in 1219, the North Sea, which has long been held at bay by all manner of . dykes and other defences. decided to put an end to tho opposition, once and for all. And so, with tho help of a scries of extraordinary gales from tho north-west, it broke through all defences botweon Texcl and ,Terschelling and raced over tho _ lowlying land beyond. It did not- do it all in one great swoop, of course. The effort of 1219 was repeated in 1282, and it was not until tie fifteen century that the salt water finally scoured out for' itself its presont resting-place. It is quito a big place. Tho greatest length of the Zuyder Zee is over 80 miles; its greatest breadth over 50 miles, whilst it. has an area of nearly 2000 equaro miles. Given' in acres, its area looks even more formidable, no less, in fact, than ],230,4fi0, and of these, undor tho scheme which is now being put in operation, it is proposed to reclaim eomo 800,000. . ■ . Now tho only just way, of course, to appreciate what tho Dutch Government propoao to do is to got the largo-scale map, about which so much has been hoard in„ recent years, and study tlio matter; not# how tho Dutch engineer proposes to throw a groat dam across the neck of the bottle betweon tho island of Weiringen and Piaarn, on tho opposite coast of Friosland; iow, onoe the 6ca is excluded, he proposes to tho great work of draining tho huge area thus cut off; how he will do it "polder" by "polder," making a dyke around a stretch of laud , end then pumping all tlio water from behind it; how in doing this he must make provision for rivers and streams to find their way to the sea; must tako into aocount tho contour of tho country, now lying somo twelve feet or raoro under water; and must so cost his work that the farmer, the builde;, the joiner, and tlio market gardener may follow close upon tho heels of the receding waters.

And they will, of course, follow close. Tho Dutch Government has it all worked out to a nicety. No l<ws than 87 per cent, of the reclaimed land will bo fertile, covered as it is with alluvial sea clay and silt from tho Yssel River, and, within a few weeks- of its first seeing the sun after its 700 years' immersion, tlie "grass of the field," in all its forms, will surely be springing .up on it. As to the archaeological discoveries likely to bo made, that is another story, and a long one.