228 Some observations in Holland, 
but the swells here instead of being long and regular as in the dis- 
tricts of the larger prairies, are short and abrupt. ‘They are gener- 
ally from twenty to forty feet in height, and bear a considerable re- 
semblance to the waves of the sea as I have seen them in the Med- 
iterranean when a heavy storm has been succeeded by a calm, ex- 
cept that these hills are higher. The swells of the larger prairies 
may be compared to the more dignified heavings of the Atlantic 
when similarly situated. 
You will wonder what all this has to do with Holland, and that I 
am now going to state. I must further premise, however, that while 
the soil of the prairies in this last region is a thick. black mud, that of 
the wooded portions is sandy. On the surface it is composed of a 
yellowish sand, mixed sufficiently with decayed grass and leaves to 
give ita kind of ash color. At the depth of three or four inches we 
come toa purer sand with a slight intermixture of clay. Having 
occasion for sand in building during my residence there, I dug into the 
side of one of the hills of the “‘ barrens” and was surprised to find at 
the depth of thirty inches sand almost entirely pure. Whether this 
is the case in all this region I cannot say, but I should judge that it is. 
On leaving this third prairie district with our faces eastward, we 
enter immediately into a region entirely flat, thickly covered with 
huge trees and undergrowth, with a rich soil and where any one has 
i to clear it, well repaying the labors of the husbandman. 
We have in fact now left the country of the prairies. 
I travelled through Holland in a manner, (i. e. on foot,) that allow- 
ed me to go whithersoever curiosity might lead. Having entered 
at its northern border and passed on to the sea-board, I determined 
at some spot along the coast to examine the natural dykes thrown 
up by the sea, of which I had no very definite idea. I had never 
met with any detailed account of them, and supposed them to be 4 
strip of sand-bank washed up by the waves, eight or nine feet high 
and about twice as wide, on which a person might walk and look 
directly down on the sea on one side, with the meadow land imme- 
diately adjoining on the other. : 
Soon after leaving Leyden for the Hague, I turned from the 
thronged highway, and after crossing a rich cultivated district of two 
miles in width, found myself at the edge of the ocean dyke. But 
it was far different from what I had anticipated. I saw on approach- 
ing it that it was much higher than I had supposed, and when ! 
