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Show 286 INROA'DS OF THE SEA IN IIOLLAND. . d d the head of its delta. The left must therefore be con~ :e W al and the rio-ht, retaining that arm takes ~he nam~ 0 0 ; :not:er'branch to fhe left, called the of the Rhm~, sen s d not her named the Y ssel. After L k d stdllower own, a . ] d h Rh' ec ' an ll t stream still cal e t e me, d. · · the sma es ' this last tvtston, d 1 . tself in the sands before reaching passes by Utrecht, !n o.sles lbelow I eyden. It is common, in G Sea a 1ew mi es .A • • , the erman ' h . i al channels of discharge should all great de~tas, tha~ t ~ P~:tc fn Holland so many magnificent shift from time to time' d nd have diverted, from time to 1 h been constructe , a . . c.a na s h ave urse of t h e waters, that the geographical changes m time, t e co 1 . and their history' since the Roman era, this delta are end ess' . f t' uarian research. The present forms a complicated. top~ o t aFo~~~ geoo-raphical miles from the head of the delta IS ~f ~:;led the zu;der Zee, and more than nearest part .of the gu th eneral coast-line. The present twice that dts~an~~ ~~: is :b!ut eighty or ninety geographical he.ad of the NilotiC. t~at of the Ganges, as we before stated, two miles from the sea, d th t f the Mississippi about one hunhundred and twenty; a~ fa o the point where theAtchafalaya d d · hty reckonmo- rom · h dre an eig ' o . t f the new tongue of land m t e branches off, to the ex~remi y o tive distance between the heads Gulf of Mexico. Butt e ;omdpara cely any data for estimating 1 d the sea auor s scar h . of de tas. an . de of the alluvial tracts formed by t etr the relative magmtu h 'ficati'ons depend on many vary- respecti.v e ri.v ers. F.o r t e rami s and the area over wbi·c 1 h 1 t ey ing and temporary lcdircumstanct:~t proportion to the volume of extend does not ho any cons water in the river: l Rh' at present, as having three We may consider t 1e me, b . the W aal· the t or left arm emg ' mouths; the southernmos h being in the centre; and the Leek the largest of the t ree,h As the whole coast ' · 1 t nort ern arm. y ssel forming the ng 1 or . d the north to the entrance to the south, as far as Calats, ~n on . 1 yieided to the force . f time Immemona ' . . . h d of the Baltic, h~s, ~om h he delta of the Rhine, tf tt a of the waves, it Is evident t at t tremely prominent, and even advanced, would have ~ecome :Ould long ere this have pro· 'f 't had remained stationary' d 'b d at the mouth 1 1 . f 1 d 1 ad y escr1 e , jected, like that strip o an a re ded outline of the co~t. of the Mississippi, beyond th~ r;u~ine of islands which skirts But we .nod, on the contrary' t a a , I~ROADS OF ~liE SEA IN HOLLAND. 287 the coast have not only lessened in size, but in number also, while great bays in the interior have been formed by incursions of the sea. We shall confine ourselves to the enumeration of some of the leading facts, in confirmation of these views, and begin with the southernmost part of the delta where the W aal enters, which is at present \tnited with the Meuse, in the same manner as an arm of the Po, before mentioned, has become confluent with the Adige. The Meuse itself had once a common embouchure with the Scheld,e, by Sluys and Ostburg, but this channel was afterwards sanded, up, as were many others between W alchere:n, Beveland, and other isles at the mouths of these rivers. The new accessions were almost all within the coast-line, and were far more than counterbalanced by inroads of the sea, whereby large tracts of land, and dunes of blown sand, together with towns and villages, were swept away between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. Besides the destruction of parts of W alcheren, Beveland, and populous districts in Kadzand, the island Orisant was in the year 1658 annihilated. One of the most memorable eruptions occurred in 14~1, where the tide, pouring into the mouth of the united Meuse and W aal, burst through a dam in the district named Bergse-Veld, and overflowed twenty-two villages, forming that large sheet of water called the Bies Bosch. No vestige even of the ruins of these places could ever afterwards be seen, but a small portion of the new bay became afterwards silted up, and formed an island. The Leek, or central arm of the Rhine, which enters the sea a little to the north of this new estuary, has, at present, a communication with it. The island Grunewert, which in the year 1~28 existed not far from Houten, has been entirely destroyed. Farther to the north is a long line of shore, covered with sand dunes, where great depredations have been made from time to time. The church of Scheveningen, not far from the Hague, was once in the middle of th~ village, and now stands on the shore; half the place having been overwhelmed by the waves in 1570. Catwyck, once far from the sea, is now upon the shore; two of its streets having been overflowed, and land torn away to the extent of two hundred yards in 1719. It is only by aid of embankments, that Petten, and several other places farther north, have been defended against the sea. |
