Springfield Globe Republic

The Defenses of Holland.

A considerable sum is to be spent
this year in completing the defenses of
Holland. The system which has been
adopted is peculiar, but is apparently
well adapted to the characteristics of
the country in which it is being carried
out. While other nations, when invasion
threatens, mobilize their armies,
in Holland the order will be given for
the mobilization of the waters."

When this operation is effected, a water-
line from five to ten miles wide and
some sixty miles long will be created,
directly barring the advance of the invader
coming from the east. Above
the surface of this inundation nothing
will be visible but a few narrow roads
raised on embankments, enfiladed by
fortifications bristling with cannon.
The water for the most part will be
only a few inches deep, so that it will
not be navigable by hostile gun-boats
or flotillas; while deep trenches cut in
the ground will frustrate any attempt
to wade through the inundation. The
contingency of an invasion taking
place in the winter, when the waters
might be frozen over, is ingeniously provided
for. The depth of the inundation
will then be increased, and the
waters allowed to freeze on the surface.
The water below will afterward
be drained off, leaving the crust of ice
ready to break in under the weight of
the first troops who attempt to cross it.
- St. James's Gazette.