Zuiderzee

“ The South Land has, on its coasts, downs covered with grass and sand so deep, that, in walking, one’s foot is buried ankle-deep, and leaves great traces behind it. At about a league from the shore there runs a reef of rock, on which here and there the sea is seen to break with great force. In some places there is a depth of from one, one and a half, to two fathoms, so that a boat can pass, after which the depth becomes greater up to the shore; but it is everywhere a dangerous coral bottom, on which it is difficult to find holding for an anchor. ”

“ The formation of new banks by the sea is constantly going on at points favorable for the deposit of sand and earth, and hence opportunity is continually afforded for enclosure of new land outside of that already diked in, the coast is fast advancing seaward, and every new embankment increases the security of former enclosures. The province of Zeeland consists of islands washed by the sea on their western coasts, and separated by the many channels through which the Schelde and some other rivers find their way to the ocean. ”

“ The endiking of low lands against the sea which had been quietly proceeding during the first eleven centuries of the Christian era, received a fresh impetus in the 12th and 13th centuries from the fact that the level of the sea then became higher in relation to that of the land. This fact is illustrated by the broadening of river mouths and estuaries at this time, and the beginning of the formation of the Zuider Zee. A new feature in diking was the construction of dams or sluices across the mouths of rivers, sometimes with important consequences for the villages situated on the spot. ”

“ When you have reached the 26th or 27th degree, run eastward until you come in sight of the South-land, and then, as before mentioned, from there hold your course north by west and north-north-west, and you are sure to make the western extremity of Java, as shown in the annexed small chart [*] , which I have drawn up for the better assurance. This South-land, as far as we could judge, seems to be a very fair coast, but we found it impossible to land on it, nor have we seen any smoke or signs of inhabitants there ”

“ In fact, the original name, used by the Dutch themselves until some time after Tasman's second voyage in 1644, was Terra Australis, or 'Great South Land;' and, when it was displaced by 'New Holland,' the new term was applied only to the parts lying westward of a meridian line passing through Arnhem's Land on the north, and near the isles of St. Francis and St. Peter on the south; all to the eastward, including the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, still remained as Terra Australis. ”

“ The South Seas; to have wandered among their green isles is to have seen a new world, a new heaven and a new earth. The white reef with its whiter rim of plunging surf, the swaying palms, the flashing waterfall, the joyous people, straight as Greeks and colored like varnished leather, the bread-fruit tree and the brown orange, the purple splendor of the vine called Bougainvillia, and above all the volcanic mountains, green fringed with huge trees, with tree ferns and palms, the whole tied together into an impenetrable jungle by the long armed lianas. ”

“ In 1205 the island of Wieringen, posted at the extremity of North Holland, still made part of the continent; in 1251 it was already separated from it. In its later invasions, the sea submerged various parts of the isthmus which separated its waters from those of the lake of Flevo, until in 1282, opening for itself a breach in that shattered bulwark, it broke into the lakes, invaded the land, and enlarging as it proceeded, formed the vast gulf now known as the Zuyder Zee, or Southern Sea, which sends an arm, the Y, as far as Beverwijk and Haarlem. ”

“ There is such a spot on the Lincolnshire coast, on the north side of the Wash, [See Map A] known as East Holland. It is low-lying land, dyked against the sea, and bordered like Frisia with sand-flats which dry off at low water. It is easy of access from the east, by way of Boston Deeps, a deep-water channel formed by a detached bank, called the Long Sand, lying parallel to the shore for ten miles. This bank makes a natural breakwater against the swell from the east (the only quarter to be feared) ”

“ The Southern Coast of Africa runs in a Line of Latitude, the Northern on an Eastern Line, but both strait, with the fewest Inlets, Gulphs or Bays, of either of the four Continents; the only large and remarkable one, is that of Benin and Calabar, towards which the Currents of each Coast tend, and is strongest from the Southward, because more open to a larger Sea, whose rising it is (tho’ little and indiscernable at any Distance from the Land,) that gives rise to these Currents close in Shore, which are nothing but Tides altered and disturbed by the Make and Shape of Lands. ”

“ Eighty per cent. of the bottom consists of sea clay and the more recent silt of the Ysel; 20 per cent. of sand, partly in the north about Urk and Enkhuizen, partly in the south along the high shores of Gooi, Veluwe, &c. The shallowness of the sea and the character of its bottom, promising fertile soil, occasioned various projects of drainage. The scheme recommended by the Zuider Zee Vereeniging (1886) formed the subject of a report in 1894 by a state commission. The principal feature in the scheme was the building of a dike from the island of Wieringen to the coast of Friesland. ”

“ We now made for the eastern coast of New Holland, southward of Port Jackson; the coast has a most beautiful appearance, being constantly green during the year. From the south cape, about five leagues to the northward, is a most spacious bay with good anchorage, and sheltered from all winds. The natives are very ferocious; few vessels put in without partially suffering by their depredations, particularly seamen who, having ventured from their parties, have been by them cut off, robbed, and murdered. ”

“ A large species of rails, which we called water-hens, and which are very numerous in this part of New Zeeland, with perhaps some shell-fish on the rocks, or some dead fish thrown up by the sea, had in all probability afforded it sufficient support. We may from hence conclude, that as there is abundance of food for carnivorous animals in New Zeeland, they would probably be very numerous if they existed there at all, and especially if they were endowed with any degree of sagacity, like the fox, or cat tribes. ”

“ When we sailed to the southward, in August and September 1769, we met with signs of land, seaweed and a seal, which, though both of them are often seen at great distances from land, yet are not met with in open oceans, and we were at that time too far from the coast of New Zealand, and much too far from that of South America, to have supposed them to have come from either of these. The body of this land must, however, be situated in very high latitudes; a part of it may indeed come to the northward, within our track ”

“ The sterility of the country will apologise for the natives not contributing to the wants of the navigator. The sea may, perhaps, in some measure, compensate for the deficiency of the land; for a coast surrounded by reefs and shoals, as this is, cannot fail of being stored with fish.
I have before observed, that the country bears great resemblance to New South Wales, or New Holland, and that some of its natural productions are the same. ”

“ Zuider Zee (i. e. south sea) , a deep inlet of the North Sea, in the Netherlands, which includes the islands of Texel, Vlieland, Terschelling, and Ameland, and was formed by irruptions of the North Sea into a lake called Flevo, in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, when thousands of people were drowned; is 85 m. ”

“ Here, where “The heavens are telling the glory of God,” and the Southern Cross and the eye of night throw out a light unequalled in our Northern hemisphere, to simply live is a delight.
That great deck seemed unnecessary for those quiet waters, but there are times when the sea changes its moods with a suddenness like that of Southern storms in the upland regions of Africa, where the whirlwinds of dust come with unexpected fury. Those tropical winds, on both land and sea, are treacherous and capricious. ”

“ A range of sand-hills runs along the coast of the German ocean, close to the beach, and the country between them and the Zuyder-sea is nearly a perfect flat. Large dykes, or mounds of earth, run along the shores of the Zuyder-sea to protect the tide from overflowing the country, which is below the level of high water. The sand-hills serve for an embankment on the side of the German ocean. The principal arsenal for equipping and repairing the Dutch fleet is near the town of Helder, the greater part of which rendezvouses there ”

“ Sud-Est is a large island 40 miles in length and eight miles broad. The coast runs east and west, and is surrounded by a fringe of mangroves, with a coral reef extending some distance from its shores. It has high land, the principal mountain, Mount Rattlesnake, which is on the south-east coast, having an altitude of over 3,000 feet. There are hundreds of deep gullies running north and south, with bold hills, covered with good grass, separating them. These hills would make excellent pasturage for cattle, and after a time for sheep also, the grass at present being a little too rank. ”

“ In the very same year (1606) the Dutch yacht named the Duyfken is said to have coasted along the south and west coast of New Guinea nearly a thousand miles, till they reached Cape Keerweer, or "turn again." This was probably the north-west coast of Australia. In the first thirty years of the seventeenth century the Dutch followed the west coast of Australia with as much industry as the Portuguese had done with the west coast of Africa, leaving up to the present day signs of their explorations in the names of islands, bays, and capes. ”

“ The principal object of your mission is to examine the hitherto unexplored Coasts of New South Wales, from Arnhem Bay, near the western entrance of the Gulf of Carpentaria, westward and southward as far as the North-west Cape; including the opening, or deep bay called Van Diemen's Bay, and the cluster of islands called Rosemary Islands, and the inlets behind them, which should be most minutely examined; and, indeed, all gulfs and openings should be the objects of particular attention ”

“ Every person in our sloop experienced the good effects of this change of diet; nay every animal on board seemed to be benefited by it, except our sheep, which were not likely to fare so well as ourselves. The nature of the country accounts for this disegreeable circumstance. The whole southern extremity of Tavai-poe-namoo, or the southern island of New Zeeland, and especially the land about Dusky Bay consists entirely of steep rocky mountains, with craggy precipices, clad with thick forests, and either barren or covered with snow on their summits. ”

“ The Dutch recital says,—"In the year 1627, the South Coast of the Great South Land was accidentally discovered by the ship the Gulde Zeepaard, outward-bound from Fatherland, for the space of a thousand miles."
This discovery has always been considered as of importance. A memoir was published at Amsterdam in 1718, "to prove, that Nuyts' Land, being in the fifth climate, between 34° and 36° of latitude; it ought to be, like all other countries so situated, one of the most habitable, most rich, and most fertile parts of the world." ”

“ At the Gulf of Suez a line of highlands crosses to Africa from Syria, which follows the coast line of the Red Sea to its southern extremity, then bends to the south, passes the equator, and joins the broad plateaus that extend over South Africa. As there is no prominent interior mountain range, this long line of coastal highlands forms the most important water-parting of the continent. Within its bounds are the upper courses of the Nile, Congo, and Zambezi, as well as of the Orange and of most of the smaller streams. ”

“ The many hundred leagues of coast so frequently visited by the Dutch, had afforded no encouragement for the plantation of settlements similar to those which they had founded with such brilliant results in the Indian Seas.
The Commander Carstens, sent by the Dutch East India Company to explore New Holland, describes it as "barren coasts, shallow water, islands thinly peopled by cruel, poor, and brutal natives, and of very little use to the company." Tasman's Land was pronounced to be the abode of "howling evil spirits." ”

“ Once again I changed my course to wander among the South Seas and leave Sydney for the future.
Yet even on land he who has been brought up on a continent cannot escape a feeling of isolation, the consciousness of being completely surrounded by water. After you have had the deep beneath you for seven days, and again seven days, you begin to feel that even the islands are but floating in the same fluid. ”

“ A brief account of the west-coast of the South-land.
The South-land has sandy dunes forming many points on the sea-side; the dunes all consist of loose sand overgrown with grass into which a man will sink up to his ankles, and leave deep footprints on withdrawing his feet. ”

“ If we now examine the conditions to which navigation is subjected in the three seas nearest to Suez, that is to say, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Oman, we shall find that in the Mediterranean the winds blow from the north during the greater part of the year, change to the south by east towards the spring, and return to the north, passing by the west and north-west. ”