the old task was resumed; man began once more to dispute
the soil with the invading waves. A portion of the land, which
seemed to have been forever lost, was regained; but at the cost
of what determined strife, after how many battles, with what
dire alternations! Within a century, three entire polders on
the north coast of Noordbeveland have again vanished, and in
the place where they were there flows a stream forty yards deep.
In 1873, the polder of Borselen, thirty-one acres in extent, sank
into the waters. Each year the terrible _val_ devours some space
or other, carrying away the land in strips. The Sophia polder is
now attacked by the _val_. Every possible means is being employed
for its defence; no sacrifice is spared. The game is almost up;
already one dike has been swallowed, and a portion of the conquered
ground has had to be abandoned. The dams are being strengthened
in the rear, while every effort is being made to fix the soil so
as to prevent the slipping away of the reclaimed land. To effect
this, not only are the dams, reinforced and complicated by an
inextricable network of stones and interlaced tree-branches; but
_Zinkstukken_ are sunk far off in the sea, which by squeezing down
the shifting bottom avert those sudden displacements which bring
about such disasters. The Zinkstukken--enormous constructions in
wicker work--are square rafts, made of reeds and boughs twisted
together, sometimes two or three hundred feet long on a side.
They are made on the edge of the coast and pushed into the sea;
and no sooner is one afloat than it is surrounded by a crowd of
barges and boats, big and little, laden with stones and clods
of earth. The boats are then attached to the Zinkstuk, and this
combined flotilla is so disposed along shore that the current
carries it to the place where the Zinkstuk is to be sunk. When
the current begins to make itself felt, the raft is loaded by
the simple process of heaping the contents of the barges upon
the middle of it. The men form in line from the four corners
to the centre, and the loads of stone and earth are passed on to
the centre of the raft, on which they are flung; then the middle
of the Zinkstuk begins to sink gently, and to disappear under the
water. As it goes down, the operators withdraw; the stones and
clods are then flung upon it from boats. At this stage of the
proceedings the Zinkstuk is so heavy that all the vessels, dragged
by its weight, lean over, and their mas