River, northwestern Germany.
It rises on the southern slope of the Teutoburg Forest and flows generally northwest and north through the states of North RhineWestphalia and Lower Saxony for 230 mi (371 km) to the North Sea . Its mouth is a wide estuary (the Dollart) bordering The Netherlands. Between 1892 and 1899 the river was canalized, connecting it with the Dortmund-Ems Canal and the Ruhr River in order to provide a German water link for the Ruhr industrial district.