The Pacific Commercial Advertiser

DRIVING BACK THE OCEAN
The Gigantic Work of Reclaiming Land in Holland.

The people of Holland have undertaken a gigantic work by means of which they expect to recover the larger part of the territory now covered by the Zuyder Zee, the inland sea of the country, and turn it again into a fertile farming region. It is now just five centuries since the inundation of that part of the Netherlands now covered by the Zuyder Zee was completed, the encroachments of the sea having been going on for 225 years, previous to which time the territory was covered with forests.

By the most stupendous exertions about 350 square miles of country has already been recovered by an elaborate dyke system, which has gradually reclaimed section after section that was lost, but the new scheme transcends the previous work in extent and importance.

The towns of the region which had become of considerable importance as seaports through the bringing of the waters of the ocean to their doors have lost considerable of that importance through the difficulties of navigation and the transfer of the trade to the North Holland canal and the Y ship canal, which connects the metropolis with the ocean. On this account the remnants of commerce are not worth as much to the towns as the country would be after it is reclaimed, and therefore there is general acquiescence in the plan to drive the ocean out.

On account of the great cost it will be distributed over a period of thirty-three years, so as to make it less oppressive and to make the benefits gradually bear their share of the expense. A colossal seawall is first to be built from North Holland to Friesland, shutting out the tides of the ocean. This wall will be 216 feet wide at the base and the top will be seventeen feet above the sea level, while along the inner side and at some distance below the top will be a track wide enough for a wagon road and a railway.

After the sea is barred out the enclosed space to be reclaimed will include within separate embankments four areas containing in the aggregate 750 square miles. One of these areas will be first drained by pumping the water over the embankment, the water finding its way to the sea through the main channel, and as the shallower portions become exposed they will be successively brought under cultivation. It is calculated that within ten years 25,000 acres can be made annually available, and in the end the inland sea will be reduced to a channel about fifteen miles wide, called the Ysselmeer, communicating with the sea by locks at Wieringen, with Amsterdam by a branch three miles wide and by another with the mouth of the Yssel.

The plan has received the sanction of the government, and the engineers pronounce it feasible.-Milwaukee Journal.