Geography of the European Netherlands of land to reflect a change in course of the river Meuse (or Maas, in Dutch). The land swap is to take effect as of 2018. With their provinces in 2018: Geography of the European Netherlands The geography of the Netherlands in Europe is unusual in that much of its land has been reclaimed from the sea and is below sea level, protected by dikes. Another factor that has influenced its physical appearance is that the country is among the most densely populated on Earth. It is ranked 30th overall on that scale, but is behind only three countries having
European land exploration of Australia discovered—the Darling, Macquarie, Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers—all of which flowed west, a theory was developed of a vast inland sea into which these rivers flowed. Another reason behind the idea of an inland sea was that Matthew Flinders, who had very carefully mapped much of Australia's coast had discovered no great river delta where these rivers should have emerged by had they reached the coast. The Murray-Darling basin actually drains into Lake Alexandrina. Matthew Flinders had noted this on his maps but viewed from the sea does not look like the outfall of a large watershed, but instead as a