River, northwestern Germany. It rises on the southern slope of the Teutoburg Forest and flows generally northwest and north through the states of North Rhine-Westphalia 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