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The Netherlands

Queen Wilhelmina, born August 21st, 1880.

Before 1830 the kingdom of the Netherlands included the two countries at present known as Holland and Belgium. It lies between lat. 50° 45' and 53° 35' N., and long. 3° 24' and 7° 12′ E. Its area is 190 m. from N. to S., and 60 to 120 m. in breadth, including 20,527 sq. m. with a population of 4,390,857. The chief characteristic of the country is that of a dead plain, much of it lying below the level of the sea, from which it is partly protected by natural sand hills and partly by vast artificial dykes and embankments. Through Holland flow three great rivers-the Rhine, the Maas or Meuse, and the Scheldt-and their mud mixing with sand-banks thrown up by the ocean around their mouths, has formed the country, which, excepting the S.-E. portion, is nothing but the delta of those rivers. By nature it is a wide morass, which the industry and genius of man have made fertile and habitable by protecting it by embankments from the overflow of the rivers and the oft recurring inundations of the sea.