ABSTRACT
"Drown or be Dutch." It's a saying that is found in the 17th-century travel diaries of people visiting Holland during its "Golden Age." The Dutch lowlands consist of the western and northern peat regions, the northern, western, and southwestern sea clay regions, the dune region, the IJsselmeer, the region of the rivers, and the river terrace landscape. The Dutch Delta's lowland landscapes were formed by the dynamism of water, the most important force behind the patterns of sand, clay, and peat that make up the natural landscape. The sea, the greatest of reservoirs, was the most dynamic shaper of the Netherlands' coastal landscape because of its mass. The seeping, gradual drainage of rainwater set up the conditions for the development of the peat landscape of fens and bogs. Toward the end of the Weichselian era, the vast majority of the Pleistocene landscape not covered by a layer of ice was tilted slightly and had ridges of sand and loess.
