SCHELDT, or Schelde (Fr. Escaut, Lat. Scaldis, Ο. Dutch ScJιoude or Schouwe), a river of north-west Europe, belonging for 75 miles of its course to France, 137 to Belgium, and 37 to the Netherlands. Rising at a height of 295 feet above the sea, in a small lake (7 square miles) at the old abbey of St Martin, near Catelet, in the French department of Aisne (Picardy), it becomes navigable by the junction of the St Quentin Canal, below Catelet, and passes by Cambray, Denain (where it receives the Selle), Valenciennes, at the mouth of the Rouelle, Condé, at the mouth of the Haisne or Henne, and Chateau l’Abbaye, at the mouth of the Scarpe. Entering Belgium between Mortagne and Hollain, it continues by Fontenoy, Tournay, and Oudenarde to Ghent, where it is joined by the Lys from the left, and by the canals which unite this town with Sas and Bruges. At Ghent the tide rises 3 ½ feet and lasts for four hours; and it would ascend much farther were it not for sluices. But the river, instead of proceeding straight towards the sea, as it appears to have done perhaps as late as the time of Charlemagne, makes a great bend towards the east to Dendermonde (the mouth of the Dender) and Antwerp, whence it again turns northwest and loses itself in the estuaries among the islands of...
Zealand. The whole of the lowlands to the north of Ghent are so intersected with canals, and the natural channels are so intermingled with those partially or entirely artificial, that it is impossible to discover with certainty what has been the real history of the lower course of the Scheldt. The Hont or Western Scheldt, the principal estuary by which nearly all Belgium commerce is conveyed, was probably opened up by a storm in 1173, and about 1058 must have been a mere narrow creek. The Eastern Scheldt, which then received most of the river, has gradually diminished in importance, and since the construction of the railway bridge across it between the mainland and South Beveland in 1867 has become completely obstructed with sands. At Antwerp the depth at high water is 49 feet.
Between 1648 and 1792 the Dutch closed the mouths of the Scheldt against foreign commerce. The emperor Joseph of Austria, at that time ruler of Antwerp, protested against this action in 1783, but in 1784, by the treaty of Fontainebleau, he recognized, in return for concessions of territory and 9⅜ million florins, the right of the Dutch to adhere to the terms of the peace of Westphalia. In 1792 by conquest of Dumouriez, and in 1795 by treaty between France and Holland, the Scheldt was declared open. During the union of Holland and Belgium the question naturally lay in abeyance. When Belgium became independent (1839) Holland so far resumed her exclusive policy, but in 1863 the dues which she was allowed to levy by the treaty of separation were capitalized by Belgium paying 17,141,640 florins, a sum which was largely repaid to Belgium by twenty other countries who felt they had an interest in the free navigation of the Scheldt. Great Britain’s share was 8,782,320 francs.
See Vifquain, Des Voies Navigables en Belgique, 1842; Wauvermans, “Sur les Variations de l’Escaut au XVI. siècle,” in Bull. de la Soc. de Géogr. d’Anvers, vol. i.; Raemdonck, “L’Hist. du Cours de l’Escaut,” and Verstraete, “Cours Primitif de l'Escaut," both in Bull. de la Soc. Belge de Géogr., 1878.
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