. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. HYDROGEAPIIY. 463 have been recovered. History takes but little note of these reclamations, for, unlike irruptions of the sea, which destroy the work of generations in a single day, they do not strike the imagination. But the Dutch dyker pursues his task unmindful of the applause of the world, and no sooner has the ocean won a victory than he goes to work to retrieve the disaster. The first dykes are supposed to have been constructed by the Northmen, but none of these earlier works of defence survived the disasters of the fifteenth century. It was
. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. HYDROGEAPIIY. 463 have been recovered. History takes but little note of these reclamations, for, unlike irruptions of the sea, which destroy the work of generations in a single day, they do not strike the imagination. But the Dutch dyker pursues his task unmindful of the applause of the world, and no sooner has the ocean won a victory than he goes to work to retrieve the disaster. The first dykes are supposed to have been constructed by the Northmen, but none of these earlier works of defence survived the disasters of the fifteenth century. It was only when the Dutch had won their independence that the great national Fi"'. 258.—The Windmills at task of conquering the ocean was vigorously taken in hand. The draining of the Lake of Zyp, near Alkmaar, 13,820 acres in extent, was, in 1553, the greatest achievement up to that time. The Dutch engineers became famous, and other countries frequently availed themselves of their services. In recent years the work of reclamation has been progressing at an increasing rate. Between 1815 and 1875 142,849 acres of cultivable land have been added to the area of Holland, being at the rate of 6-4 acres daily. The 940,000 acres of land reclaimed to the north of the Maas represent a value, at the rate of £24 an acre, of £23,560, Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Reclus, Elisée, 1830-1905; Ravenstein, Ernest George, 1834-1913; Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry), 1833-1912. New York, D. Appleton and company
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade18, booksubjectgeography, bookyear1883
