the islands to the continent by chains of sand, as in
Zealand; has detached the borders of the continent and formed of them
new islands, such as Wieringen; has withdrawn from some provinces, and
has converted maritime cities into inland towns, as at Leeuwarden; it
has changed vast plains into archipelagoes of a hundred isles, such
as the Bies-Bosch; it has separated the city from the land, as at
Dordrecht. New gulfs two leagues wide have been formed, such as the
Gulf of Dollart; two provinces have been separated by a new
sea--namely, North Holland and Friesland. Inundations have caused the
level of the ground to be raised in some places, lowered in others;
unfruitful soil has been fertilized by the sediment of the overflown
rivers; fertile ground has been changed into deserts of sand. The
transformations of the waters have given rise to a transformation of
labor. Islands have been joined to the continent, as was the island of
Ameland; whole provinces are being reduced to islands, as is the case
with North Holland, which will be separated from South Holland by the
new canal of Amsterdam; lakes as large as provinces have been made to
disappear, like the Lake of Beemster. By the removal of the thick mud,
land has been converted into lakes, and these lakes are again
transformed into meadows. So the country changes, ordering and
altering its aspect in accordance with the violence of the waters and
the needs of man. As one glances over the latest map, he may be sure
that in a few years, it will be useless, because at the moment he is
studying it, there exist bays which will disappear little by little,
tracts of land which are on the point of detaching themselves from the
continent, and large canals which will open and carry life into
uninhabited regions.

But Hollanders did more than defend themselves from the water; they
became its masters. The water was their scourge; it became their
defence. If a foreign army invades their territory, they open the
dykes and loose the sea and the rivers, as they loosed them on the
Romans, the Spanish, and the army of Louis XIV., and then defend the
inland towns with their fleets. Water was their poverty; they have
made it riches. The whole country is covered with a network of canals,
which irrigate the land and are at the same time the highways of the
people. The towns communicate with the sea by means of the canals;
canals lead from town to town, binding the towns to the villages, and
un