fury and her strength.

In the midst of this great and terrible struggle Holland is transformed:
Holland is the land of transformations. A geographical map of that
country as it existed eight centuries ago is not recognizable.
Transforming the sea, men also are transformed. The sea, at some points,
drives back the land; it takes portions from the continent, leaves them
and takes them again; joins islands to the mainland with ropes of sand,
as in the case of Zealand; breaks off bits from the mainland and makes
new islands, as in Wieringen; retires from certain coasts and makes land
cities out of what were cities of the sea, as Leuvarde; converts vast
tracts of plain into archipelagoes of a hundred islets, as Biisbosch;
separates a city from the land, as Dordrecht; forms new gulfs two
leagues broad, like the gulf of Dollart; divides two provinces with a
new sea, like North Holland and Friesland. The effect of the inundations
is to cause the level of the sea to rise in some places and to sink in
others; sterile lands are fertilized by the slime of the rivers, fertile
lands are changed into deserts of sand. With the transformations of the
waters alternate the transformations of labor. Islands are united to
continents, like the island of Ameland; entire provinces are reduced to
islands, as North Holland will be by the new canal of Amsterdam, which
is to separate it from South Holland; lakes as large as provinces
disappear altogether, like the lake of Beemster; by the extraction of
peat, land is converted into lakes, and these lakes are again
transformed into meadows. And thus the country changes its aspect
according to the violence of nature or the needs of men. And while one
goes over it with the latest map in hand, one may be sure that the map
will be useless in a few years, because even now there are new gulfs in
process of formation, tracts of land just ready to be detached from the
mainland, and great canals being cut that will carry life to uninhabited
districts.

But Holland has done more than defend herself against the waters; she
has made herself mistress of them, and has used them for her own
defense. Should a foreign army invade her territory, she has but to open
her dikes and unchain the sea and the rivers, as she did against the
Romans, against the Spaniards, against the army of Louis XIV., and
defend the land cities with her fleet. Water was the source of her
poverty, she has made it the source of wealth. Ove