one of the provinces of the Netherlands, bounded on the north and east by Groningen, on the southeast by the kingdom of Hanover, on the south and southwest by Overijssel, and on the north-west by Friesland. It is 820 square miles in extent, and contains 46,470 inhabitants, in three towns and thirty-seven villages. The capital is Assen. It is generally a poor, cold, healthy district, depending chiefly on its breed of cattle, and on the sale of wool, honey, wax, and turf, and on the conveyance of the latter for fuel to other and larger towns that are within the province.