OVERYSSEL, or Overijssel, a province of Holland, bounded N.W. by the Zuyder Zee, N. by Friesland and Drenthe, N.E. by Hanover (Prussia), S.E. by Westphalia (Prussia), and S. and S.W. by Guelderland, with an area of 1291 square miles. The southern district belongs to the basin of the Yssel; the northern is watered by the Vecht and various small streams falling into the Zwartewater, the river which was for so many generations the object of dispute between Zwolle and Hasselt. A large proportion of the surface is a sandy flat relieved by hillocks, rising at times to a height of 230 feet above the sea. Husbandry, stock-raising, and dairy-farming are the principal means of subsistence in the province, though the fisheries, turf-cutting, the shipping trade, and a number of manufacturing industries are also of importance. In the district of Twenthe (towards the east) more especially there are a great many cotton-mills and bleaching-works; brick and tile making is prosecuted in the neighbourhood of the Yssel; and along the coast a good many people are engaged in making mats and besoms. During the present century the province has been opened up by the construction of several large canals—the Dedemsvaart, the Noord-Willemsvaart (between the Yssel and the Zwartewater), the “Overyssel canals” (running near the eastern frontier), &e.; and a fairly complete railway system has come into existence. The province is divided into the three administrative districts of Zwolle, Deventer, and Almelo. Its population, 234,376 in 1859 and 263,008 in 1875 (134,201 males, 128,807 females), was 247,136 in 1879. Of the total for Ί875, 181,863 were Protestants, 76,891 Roman Catholics, and 4018 Jews. The chief town, Zwolle, had in 1879 a communal population of 22,759, and there were fourteen ...