No. 4.] HOLLAND AND ITS PEOPLE. 81 



fore the waters taken from the centre of the basin are placed 

 in the larger canal surrounding it, which leads eventually 

 toward the sea. 



Some people have been inclined to ridicule the Hollanders 

 for spending so much of their time in digging ditches, erect- 

 ing dykes and constructing windmills ; but we must remem- 

 ber there is no water power in Holland, unless it be what has 

 been facetiously called "back-action power." Let us not 

 forget that the Hollander never hears the sound of a running- 

 brook in his own country. Furthermore, in a land w'here 

 there is little wooded territory and but small amount of coal, 

 the chief article of fuel is the peat. When this is taken 

 from the lower ground wdiere it occurs, the water immedi- 

 ately gathers, and the owner has reduced the level of the 

 surface of that part of his land which was already too low. 

 We should be aware that on a plain over which the winds 

 may blow with few obstructions, a windmill once set at its 

 work will continue its action day and night, with very little 

 attention except to lubricate it. It was the winds which 

 were very largely instrumental in driving the waters over the 

 land, but the sagacious Hollander has caught these winds 

 upon the wrings of his windmills and has made them pump 

 out those waters, and enable him to reclaim the land for 

 agricultural purposes. 



A map shows us the position and form of the Sea of 

 Haarlam. In 1840 it had a total length of thirteen miles, 

 and in places it was nearly six miles in width. The winds 

 were dashinsj the waves ao;ainst its shores and sfraduallv 

 enlarging its area, while the health and safety of Haarlam, 

 Ley den and Amsterdam were threatened. It took these 

 determined people eight years to enclose this with a substan- 

 tial dyke, and it required four years more to pump the water 

 into the sea. In that twelve years they conquered an inter- 

 nal foe, and when all was completed the}^ had added more 

 than forty-four thousand acres to what is now one of the 

 most fertile portions of their country. It has been said that 

 whole flocks of birds which had made this lake their summer 

 home came from their winter quarters and went screaming 

 backward and forward, seeming to wonder whether they had 

 lost their own heads, or the lake had gone mad. I assure 



