NETHERLANDS, TILE; often called Hort LAND. The country- forming, with the coastal region of Belgium. the lowest part of Europe. It is the western continuation of the low plain of North tIermany and lies between latitudes 50° 43' and 53° 30' N.. and longitudes 3° 22' and 12' E. It is bounded on the west and north by the North Sea, on the east by Prussia, and on the south by Belgium. \\Rh an area of only I2,04S square miles. it is one of the smallest independent States of Europe. Its topography has had a lead ing part in shaping its history. The country is emphatically a maritime State. Half of its boundaries (4135 Miles) are formed by the sea. and no place in the kingdom is more than 120 miles from it.
The northern part of the Nether lands is indented by the Zuyder Zee, which repre sent in part an ancient lake, the sea having broken through the intervening land in the thir teenth century. There are many considerable islands along the coast, distributed in two groups. Off the north coast are the Frisian Islands, com prising Texel, Vileland, Ter Schelling, Amcland, and others. In the southwest are the DU merlins islands of the great Rhine-Meuse-Seheldt Delta, among which are Volume, I )vertlakkee, Schouwen Tholes, North Develand, South Beveland, and Walcheren. The country is the flattest part of the Continent, mainly a region of monotonous stretches of plains, interrupted only by sand dunes and some other undulations and low hills, particularly in the southeast. one-fourth of this region adjoining the sea front lies below the level of the sea, a considerable part of it in North and South Holland as much as 20 feet. Thirteen per cent. lies between sea level and 3 feet above the sea. The mean height of the entire kingdom is only 30 to 33 feet above the sea.
Three features, the dunes, dikes, and polders, characterize the north and south belt nearest to the sea. The dunes stretching along the coast were formed by the winds and sea, which heaped up the ocean sands into rows of hills from 20 to GO feet apart and front 33 to 200 feet high.
Wherever they front the coast they are adequate protection against the sea. These sand ridges and hills are sparsely wooded, but are saved from disintegration by natural or cultivated growths of plants. Few parts of them are tilled. but the sandy regions behind them are carefully culti vated. The dikes are gigantic artificial em bankments of earth faced with stone or pro tected by stakes. They guard the country against the sea at the places where there are no dunes. The largest is the Helder Dike. (See 1IELDER.) There are also smaller dikes, as a precaution against floods, on the banks of the Rhine and other streams. Inside the line of dunes and dikes are great numbers of polders, which are areas of land inclosed by dikes that not only protect them from floods. but also render it possible to pump out the water from within the inclosure. The land thus won with enormous toil is exceedingly fertile and valuable.
The lands reclaimed from the sea along the coast. and the basins of the rivers in the south are the most industrial and populous parts of the Netherlands. Here are the richest pastures. where most of the tine breeds of Dutch cattle are reared and the dairy industry thrives. Back of these lowest lands and polders stretch the low plains strewn with the gravel and sand brought down from the north, with swellings of ground caused by deeper accumulations of this material; and in the east are many moors or bogs covered with moss and heather, many of which have been drained, the peat cut away for fuel. and the land reclaimed for cultivation. The country is not quite destitute of important elevations, for there are hills in the extreme southeast, and to sonic extent in the central east. One of these ranges attains a height of 090 feet. and in the provinces of Drenthe, Gelderland, Overyssel, Utrecht, and Limburg are gravel bills from 150 to over 300 feet in elevation ; near Limburg is the highest elevation in the kingdom (11)55 feet).