14 SMBATON LEARNING A TRADE. PAIIT VI. 



passed. He found himself in a country which had been, 

 as it were, raked out of the very sea, for which Nature 

 had done so little, and skill and industry so much. From 

 Eotterdam he went by Delft and the Hague to Amster- 

 dam, and as far north as Helder, narrowly inspecting 

 the vast dykes raised around the land to secure it against 

 the hungry clutches of the sea from which it was origi- 

 nally won. At Amsterdam he was astonished at the 

 amount of harbour and dock accommodation, existing at 

 a time when London as yet possessed no conveniences 

 of the sort, though indeed it always had its magnificent 

 Thames. Passing round the country by Utrecht, he 

 proceeded to the great sea-sluices at Brill and Helveet- 

 sluys, by means of which the inland waters discharged 

 themselves, while the sea-waters were securely dammed 

 out. Seventeen years later, he made use of the expe- 

 rience which he had acquired in the course of his careful 

 inspection of these great works, in illustrating and en- 

 forcing the recommendations contained in his elaborate 

 report on the best means of improving Dover Harbour. 

 He made careful memoranda during his journey, to which 

 he was often accustomed to refer, and they proved of 

 great practical value to him in the course of his sub- 

 sequent extensive employment as a canal and harbour 

 engineer. 



Shortly after his return to England in 1755, an oppor- 

 tunity occurred for the exercise of that genius in 

 construction which Smeaton had thus so carefully dis- 

 ciplined and cultivated; and it proved the turning- 

 point in his fortunes, as well as the great event of his 

 professional life. 



