AMSTERDAM. 



AMSTERDAM Isl.ANP. 



all the mames* connected with the export of herring, used to be 

 ited. Farther wert is the Nieuw Westelijk Dok : in this 

 r also stands the tiaarl-Puort, or Uaerlem Gate, one of the chief 

 -__sntaofthecity. 



The rite of Amsterdam was originally a salt-manh ; and, in order 

 to make a foundation for houses, it is neoeasary to drive large piles or 

 masts of wood through Uyer* of peat and soft clay, which Tie upon a 

 Bra subsoil 40 or 60 feet below the surface ; so that the whole city, 

 with iu house*, canal*, and sluices, is supported on a substructure of 

 timber. Under the palace alone there are said to be 18,695 piles. The 

 e>mU are generally built in straight lines along the banks of the 

 canal* ; they are well paved and lighted. Among the finest are those 

 built along the three canals mentioned above ; they are, taking them 

 in order from the rampart*, Prinzen Oraght, Keyser's Oraght, and 

 Heeren Oraght The streets in the central parts of the town are 

 narrow and without foot-pavements. The private house* are nearly 

 all of brick, painted and ornamented with different colours. Several 

 of the atreeU are lined with row* of elms, limes, and walnut-trees. 

 The Kalver Straat and Nieuwe Dyk contain the best shops, the rich 

 content* of which give a splendid appearance to these streets. The 

 square* and market-places are numerous, but none of them are very 

 Urge or magnificent. A large number of the poorer inhabitant* live 

 in cellars or in boat* upon the canals. 



Among the principal public buildings may be mentioned the 

 Palace, formerly the Stadhuis, a vast and imposing edifice, adorned 

 with pictures and marble statues ; it was taken possession of by Louis 

 Bonaparte when King of Holland, and has been retained as a palace 

 by the present royal family : the Beura, or Exchange, which stands on 

 five arches over the Amstel ; the Oude Kerk, or Old Church, which is 

 of great antiquity and remarkable for its painted windows and tombs ; 

 the Nieuwe Kerk, or New Church, a splendid structure erected in 

 1645 ; it* carved pulpit and the ornamental brass-work of it* choir are 

 universally admired; this church also contains several monuments, 

 among other* one to De Rnyter ; the Stadhuis, fonnerly the Admiralty. 

 a modern building, containing several fine paintings ; the Admiralty 

 buildings ; the Arsenal before mentioned ; and the Barracks, a 

 memorial of French occupation. 



The literary and scientific establishments of Amsterdam are very 

 numerous. Among these are the Athemcum, the Royal Academy, the 

 Naval School, the Institute, and the society called ' Felix Mentis,' 

 from the first words of an inscription on the building in which its 

 meeting* are held. In these institutions courses of lectures are 

 regularly delivered on all branches of science, literature, and art ; 

 and attached to most of them are libraries, museums, collections of 

 paintings, and antiquities. There is also an Observatory, a Cabinet 

 of Natural History, and a Botanic Garden. The Association for the 

 Promotion of the Public Weal was established in 1784, and has 

 branches in all the towns of Holland: it* principal object is the 

 education and improvement of the poor. The Museum, or Picture 

 Gallery, is a truly national collection, consisting almost entirely of 

 masterpiece* of the Dutch school. 



The population of Amsterdam is 212,000, of whom about 23,000 

 are Jews. There are 47 places of public worship in the town 

 13 churches of the Reformed Religion; 1 Presbyterian; 1 Church 

 of England ; 1 Remonstrant ; 3 Lutheran ; 2 Anabaptist ; 1 of the 

 United Brethren ; 1 Armenian; 1 Greek; 6 Jansenist; 16 Roman 

 Catholic chapels ; and 2 synagogue*. The number of charitable insti- 

 tutions i* 28, which includes hospitals for the aged and infirm, the 

 imna, orphans and widows, foundlings, Ac. There are three theatres 

 Dutch, one German, one French. Among the prisons may be 

 the Rasphuia for male offenders, and the Spinhuis for 

 i ; these were so called from the occupation of their inmates in 

 former times, namely, sawing wood, and spinning. 



The want of spring-water i* a great drawback on the advantages 

 po**e**ed by Amsterdam. Every drop of rain that fall* is carefully 

 treasured up in tanks, and water is brought from Utrecht and the 

 Vecht and sold in the street*. Another inconvenience is the generally 

 impure state of the water in the canals, the effluvia from whi< li in 

 summer U very prejudicial to health. To remedy this in some degree, 

 the upper water* of the Amstel are shut off by closing the great sluices 

 at high-water, and the tide-waters are allowed to flow off until they 

 have fallen below the level of the river, which is then again admitted 

 in its turn. The principal fuel used is turf, which is abundant all 

 over Holland ; but English coal U also largely imported. 



The harbour of Amsterdam i* spacious, and the water deep ; it has 

 recently been much improved by the construction of the Oostelijk and 

 Westehjk docks, which are capable of containing 1000 large vessels, 

 and are cloned by large sluice-gates. Owing to a bank (the Pamptu) 

 at the point where the Y joins the Zuider-Zee, large veeseU going and 

 mint "7 *>>* sea are obliged to load and unload a part of their cargoes 

 in the roads. The navigation of the Zuider-Zee also U very difficult 

 and intricate by reason of its numerous shallow*. To improve the 

 access to the port the Helder Canal [HoLLAKD], capable of admitting 

 the largest das* of merchantmen, was cut from the north ride of the 

 port of Amsterdam to Newdiep, opposite to the Texel, a distance of 

 M milea By this canal the Pampas i* avoided, as well as t ! ,1:1!,., It 

 Bviption of the Zuider-Zee, where ship* were frequently detained 

 far three weeks ; tad vessels can get to and from Newdiep without any 



risk in 18 hours. 



ply from Amsterdam to Campen on 



the Yawl, from whence other (team-boat* ply to the towns on thu 

 Yssel and the Rhine. 



Amsterdam has manufactures of wool, cotton, linen, and silk ; it* 

 diamond-cutting and jewellery retain a good repute ; but its sugar 

 refineries, soaperies, distilleries, tanneries, oil-works, tobacco-factories, 

 and ship-building are the most valuable branches of industry. The 

 various handicrafts and ordinary trades common to all Urge towns 

 are also carried on in Amsterdam. It has also some glass-works and 

 iron-works. This city, however, is far more important for it* com- 

 merce than for it* manufactures. The importa principally consist of 

 sugar, coffee, spices, tobacco, cotton, tea, dye-stuffs, wine and spirits, 

 wool, corn, seeds, hemp, flax, pitch, metals, cotton and woollen stuffx, 

 hardware, rock-wait, coal, tin-plates, hides, &<x The exports are 

 cheese, butter, seeds, rape and linseed oils, linen, French and Rhenish 

 wines, brandy, spices, coffee and sugar from Java, tea, tobacco, in 

 cochineal, cotton, and other eastern and colonial product*. About 

 860 Urge ships belong to Amsterdam, which are employed in the East 

 and West India trade : a few vessels are engaged in the herring and 

 whale fisheries. Steamers ply regularly to Hamburg. The trade of 

 Amsterdam through Rhenish port* is very important: in 1847 the 

 merchandise exported in that direction amounted to 2,056,132 cwts. 

 In 1849, 1925 sea-going vessels entered the port of Amsterdam ; and 

 in 1851 the total arrivals of sea-going vessels numbered 1877 ; "i' 

 these, 104 were from Bremen, 101 from Danzig, 83 from Drammen, 

 92 from Hamburg, 106 from Java, 37 from Surinam, 26 from Bor- 

 deaux, 32 from Archangel, 59 from Petersburg, 30 from Havannab, 

 75 from Riga, and 317 from English ports. 



Amsterdam, though no longer the centre of the exchanges, fuini -. 

 and bill transactions of the world, still retains a considerable share in 

 those operations and in insurances. The celebrated bonk whirl, .. 

 established in 1609, ceased in 1796 ; and the Bank of the Netherlands 

 was established on the model of the Bank of England by the late 

 king of Holland in 1814. There are two railroads leading from 

 Amsterdam, one to Haarlem, Leyden, the Hague, and Rotterdam ; 

 the other to Utrecht and Arnhem, which is to be extended to the 

 Prussian frontier. By a recent convention with Belgium these lines 

 are about to be connected with Antwerp. 



The origin of Amsterdam is traced to a small fishing-place, 

 established on the Amstel, probably during the 12th century ; but 

 the date has not been ascertained by Dutch antiquaries ; the n:nn< 

 Ainxteldom first occurs in a letter of Count Floris, A.D. 1275, in which 

 he exempts the town from certain tolls or taxes. In 1 482 it was 

 walled ; and from 1578, when the states of Zeelond and Holland united 

 with Hrabant, Fliinderx, Ac. in the pacification of Ghent, it began to 

 acquire that commercial superiority which Antwerp had hitherto 

 possessed. When thu Scheldt was closed in 1648, the commerce of 

 Amsterdam increased Htill more at the expense of Antwerp. Kottcr- 

 dnin is said now to surpass it as a commercial city and in the value 

 of imports and exports. The town seems to have altered little for 

 more than a century ; indeed it is said that guide-books of Amsterdam, 

 a century old, ore still sufficiently correct. 



(Mocgregor's Statittict; M'CuUoch's Dictionary ; Murray's Hand- 

 book for North Germany.) 



AMSTERDAM ISLAND, u small island in the Indian Ocean, 

 discovered in 1696 by Van Vloming, a Dutch navigator, is situa 

 37 52' S. lat, 77 36' E. long. It lies about midway between Mada- 

 gascar and Australia, and is about 2100 miles west of Cape Leeuwen 

 in West Australia. Amsterdam Island has been confounded in most 

 maps with the Island of St. Paul, which lies on nearly the same 

 meridian, but about 60 miles farther south. Amsterdam Island is 

 about 4 miles long from north to south, and 2 miles from east to west ; 

 but so much of its area ia occupied by a basin or harbour that its 

 surface does not contain more than between 7 and 8 square miles of 

 land. The basin here mentioned was formerly a large volcano, into 

 the eastern ride of which the sea has forced a passage by the action 

 of it* waves, which roll with an uninterrupted current from the east. 

 The width of the breach thus made U 1000 feet, but' the part of the 

 opening through which the tide flows is only one-fifth of that width. 

 The original form of the crater was that of an ellipse, its largest 

 diameter being 3000 feet, and it* smallest 2550 feet ; it had thus a 

 circumference of nearly a mile and three-quarters, and as it* sides rise 

 to the height of 700 feet, at an angle of 65" with the horizon, the brim 

 of the basin has a circuit of rather more than 2 miles. The depth of 

 water in the centre of the basin is 174 feet. The coast in every other 

 part is inaccessible, and exhibits everywhere successive streams of lava. 

 To the north of the entrance of the harbour, and a short distance 

 from it, is an insulated rock, of a pyramidal form, which rises out of 

 the sea to the height of between 200 and 300 feet This rock is 

 composed of forty or fifty horizontal layers of lava, piled regularly 

 one upon the other. The face of these layers is cracked and divided 

 by perpendicular fissures, many of which are filled with veins .!' 

 obsidian or volcanic glass, and the same appearance is visible several 

 feet below the surface of the sea. In other of the fissures are some 

 curious specimens of zeolite Signs of fusion are evident on every 

 part of the surface of this rock, which seen from a short distance has 

 the appearance of scoria) from on iron furnace. Obsidian and pumice- 

 stone abound on all the coast. 



