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NESTOR 415 NETHEBLANDS to the Moray Firth, It lies in the valley of Glenmore, on the line of the Cale- donian Canal, and is inclosed by steep mountains — ^the highest, Mealfourvonie (2,284 feet). Owing to its great depth (in places 780 feet) it never freezes to any considerable extent. NESTOR, in Greek legend, son of Neleus and Chloris. His father and 11 brothers were killed by Hercules; but the conqueror spared Nestor's life and placed him on the throne of Pylos. As king of Pylos and Messenia, he led his subjects to the Trojan war, where he distinguished himself among the rest of the Grecian chiefs by eloquence, wisdom, and justice. NESTOR, a Russian historian; born about 1056, was a monk at Kiev, and wrote a chronicle in his vernacular tongue, which has been the foundation of Slavonic history. He died after 1116. NESTORIANISM, the doctrine taught by Nestorius (q. v.), that there were two persons as well as two natures in Jesus Christ, and that the Virgin Mary was in no sense Theotokos, or Mother of God, as she was the mother of the man Jesus and not of the Word. This doctrine was condemned by the Coun- cil of Ephesus, convened by Pope Celes- tine I., in A. D. 431. Nestorius was de- posed, and the use of the Nicene Creed made obligatory. Nestorianism made rapid strides in the East, Since 1553 a portion of the Nestorians have been in communion with Rome, and are known as Chaldeans. NESTORIUS, Bishop of Constanti- nople (428-431). He incurred the charge of heresy (see Nestorianism). Cyril of Alexandria, at the Council of Ephesus in 431, procured the condemna- tion of the doctrine taught by Nestorius and the deposition of the patriarch. He was banished to the deserts of Egypt, where he suffered much and died in 440. NET, an open fabric made of thread, twine, or cord, woven into meshes of fixed dimensions, firmly knotted at the intersections. Nets are used for a great variety of purposes, as for protecting fruit trees, for collecting insects, for hammocks, screens, etc., but chiefly for hunting and fishing. The chief kind of nets used in fishing are the trawl, the drift, the seine, the kettle or weir, and the trammel or set nets. NETHERLANDS, THE, or HOLLAND (Dutch Nederland, or Koninkrijk der Nederlanden), a kingdom of Europe on the North Sea, N. of Belgium and W. of part of northern Germany; area 12,- 648 square miles; pop. (1917) 6,724,663. The country is divided into 11 prov- inces: North Brabant, Gelderland, South Holland, North Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, Overijssel, Gron- ingen, Drenthe, and Limburg. The king is also sovereign (grand-duke) of the grand-duchy of Luxemburg. In addi- tion to her European territories Hol- land possesses extensive colonies and de- pendencies in the Asiatic archipelago and America; including Java, Sumatra, great part of Borneo, Celebes, part of New Guinea, Surinam or Dutch Guiana, the West Indian islands of Curasao, Saba, St. Eustatius, etc.; estimated area, about 783,000 square miles; pop. approximately 35,000,000. General FeaUires. — The Netherlands (or Low Countries, as the name im- plies) form the most characteristic por- tion of the great plain of N. and W. Europe. It is the lowest part of this immense level, some portions of it be- ing 16 to 20 feet below the surface of the sea, and nearly all parts too low for natural drainage. The coast line is very irregular, being marked by the great inlet of the Zuider Zee, as well as by various others, and fringed by numerous islands. In great part the coast is so low that were it not for massive sea-dykes large areas would be inundated and lost to the inhabitants. In the interior also dykes are a com- mon feature, being built to protect por- tions of land from the lakes or rivers, or to enable swampy pieces of land to be reclaimed by draining, the water be- ing commonly pu^nped up by windmills. These inclosed lands are called "pol- ders," and by the formation of the pol- ders the available area of the country is being constantly increased, lakes and marshes being converted into fertile fields, and considerable areas being even rescued from the sea. One of these reclamations was the Lake of Haarlem, the drainage of which, yielding more than 40,000 acres of good land now in- habited by about 12,000 persons, begun in 1839, was finished in 1852. Almost the only heights are the sand hills, about 100 to 180 feet high, forming a broad sterile band along the coast of South and North Holland; and a chain of low hills, of similar origin perhaps, S. E. of the Zuider Zee. In the same line with the sand hills, extending past the mouth of the Zuider Zee, runs a chain of islands, namely, Texel, Vlie- land, Schelling, Ameland, etc., which seem to indicate the original line of the coast before the ocean broke in on the low lands. The coast of Friesland, op- posite to these islands, depends for its