Note 2923 — BOOK IV. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.

This island appears to have been formed by the bifurcation of the Rhine, the northern branch of which enters the sea at Katwyck, a few miles north of Leyden, by the Waal and the course of the Maas, after it has received the Waal, and by the sea. The Waal or Vahalis seems to have undergone considerable changes, and the place of its junction with the Maas may have varied. Pliny makes the island nearly 100 miles in length, which is about the distance from the fort of Schenkenschanz, where the first separation of the Rhine takes place, to the mouth of the Maas. The name of Batavia was no doubt the genuine name, which is still preserved in Betuwe, the name of a district at the bifurcation of the Rhine and the Waal. The Canninefates, a people of the same race as the Batavi, also occupied the island, and as the Batavi seem to have been in the eastern part, it is supposed that the Canninefates occupied the western. They were subdued by Tiberius in the reign of Augustus.