Zuider Zee

Zuider Zee, a large gulf penetrating deep into the Netherlands, between 52° 26' and 53° 20' N. lat., about 60 miles in length, and 210 miles in circumference. The islands Texel, Vlieland, Ter Schelling, Ameland, and Schiermonnikoog, reaching in a chain from the most northern point of Holland, are the remains of the former line of coast, which form a breakwater against the North Sea. From Dunkirk in French Flanders to the north of Holland the interior is defended from the sea by sandhills or dunes. Here, as at the mouth of the Scheldt, the sand-barrier was broken, and in 1282 the waters overflowing the low lands separated the province of Friesland from the peninsula of North Holland, and, having united with the small inner lake Flevo, formed the present Zuider Zee. In it lie the islands Wieringen, Urk, Schokland, and Marken, with a pop. of about 5000. From the south-west of the Zuider Zee a long narrow arm, called the Y (pronounced I), formerly ran nearly due west through the peninsula of Holland. A strong sea-dyke and locks have been constructed to cut off the Zuider Zee from the Y, through which a broad ship-canal (see CANAL, fig. 5) has been made between Amsterdam and the North Sea. On both sides of the new canal the Y has been drained and turned into about 12,000 acres of rich land. The new waterway was formally opened by the king in 1876. A drainage scheme, which a state commission (1892-94) recommended, proposes to reclaim, in 31 years, 450,000 acres at an estimated cost (with compensation to fishermen) of £31,000,000. See HOLLAND; and Havard, Dead Cities of the Zuyder Zee (trans. 1876).