1885.] SAND-DUNES IN HOLLAND. 201 



Tlie beach is one vast level expanse of fine and linht-colourecl sand, 

 and the edge of the restless waves is unceasingly rolling backwards 

 and forwards upon it like a carpet being incessant!)' laid down and 

 taken up again. This sandy beach extends as far as tlie tirst belt 

 of dunes, which are steep little mounds of sand, indented, scooped 

 out, and deformed by the everlasting assaults of the waters. Such 

 is the Dutch coast from tlie mouth of the Meuse to the town of 

 Helder. Neither molluscs, jelly-fish, shells, nor crabs are ever found 

 there ; not a blade of grass, not a single green leaf, is there to be 

 seen. There is nothing for the eye to rest upon but sand, and a 

 barren desolate waste. 



" The appearance of the sea is no less dreary than the shore, and 

 we are surprised to find that the wild fancies which haunted our 

 mind after reading of the superstitious terrors of the ancients who 

 represented the North Sea as being tossed by unceasing winds, and 

 peopled by monsters of gigantic size and strength, are perfectly in 

 keeping with reality. Near the shore the waters are of a yellowish 

 hue ; farther on, a pale green, and beyond that a dead blue. Tlie 

 horizon is almost always shrouded in a thick mist, which often falls 

 like an impenetrable curtain upon the waters, completely concealing 

 the sea, and only allowing the crests of the billows that break upon 

 the sands, and a fisherman's smack or two in the distance, high and 

 dry upon the shore, to be dimly discerned. The sky is almost 

 invariably of a leaden-grey colour, with great clouds swiftly scudding 

 across it, throwing dark and flitting shadows upon the water. In 

 some places it is almost as black as the daikest night, calling up 

 visions of liurricanes and shipwrecks before the mind's eye ; in others 

 it is illuminated by patches, jagged, zigzag stripes of vivid light, that 

 look like permanent flashes of lightning, or the rays of some unseen 

 mysterious star. The waters are ceaselessly rushing with unslackened 

 fury and passionate impetus to bite the shore, uttering a long 

 plaintive wail that sounds like a shout of pain and defiance sent up 

 to heaven by the unanimous voices of a countless multitude. The 

 sea, earth, and sky glare at each other like relentless foes : and as I 

 gazed upon that spectacle, I felt a vague presentiment that some 

 great universal revolution in nature's economy was imminent. 



" The first time I went to Scheveningen I took a long walk upon 

 'the dunes that painters have so often depicted : the only heights 

 that intercept the view upon the boundless Dutch plain ; tlie 

 rebellious daugliters of the sea whose progress they impede ; the 

 captives of Holland, and her sentinels at the same time. There are 

 three ranges of dunes, forming a triple barrier against the sea : the 

 outer range is the most barren, the middle one the highest, and the 

 inner one the most fruitful. The medium heiglit of these sandy 



