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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



and dangles about their shoulders. These 

 stray locks have been appropriately 

 spoken of as "misplaced switches." That 

 the side-tracked locks of these straw- 

 berry blondes bore no evidence of the 

 ravages of time was quite noticeable. It 

 was the one feature possessed by the old 

 women of Marken which appeared to 

 have quaffed from the "fountain of per- 

 petual youth." 



So satisfied are the people with their 

 little island home that many of them die 

 without ever having seen any other part 

 of the world. The men of Marken, like 

 those of Vollendam, are fishermen — an 

 occupation which at times is extremely 

 hazardous in the stormy waters of the 

 North Sea. 



THE DUTCH FISHHR-FOLK 



As we have visited the little fishing 

 villages in this part of Holland we have 

 been reminded of the many sad tragedies 

 of the sea, whose victims were of those 

 who sailed from these very shores. They 

 departed on their final cruise with the 

 same expectation of returning in due 

 time to their loved ones as the jolly, 

 rollicking sailors we had seen taking leave 

 of their "vrouws" on the dike at A oUen- 

 dam ; and the words of a verse of one of 

 Charles Kingsley's poems were frequenty 

 recalled : 



"Three wives sat up in the light-house tower, 

 And they trimmed the lamps as the sun 

 went down ; 

 They looked at the squall and they looked at 

 the shower. 



And the night-rack came rolling up raeged 

 and brown ; 

 But men must work and women must weep. 

 Though storms be sudden and waters deep. 

 And the harbor bar be moaning." 



The Zuyder Zee was originally an in- 

 land lake and covers about 2,000 square 

 miles, or an area of about 30 by 44 miles. 

 In the thirteenth centur)' the North Sea 

 broke through the line of dunes and con- 

 verted the lake into an arm of the sea. 

 The government for a number of years 

 has had plans under consideration for 

 draining this great expanse of water. 

 The expense was estimated at $75,600,- 

 000, and 33 years the time required to 

 accomplish it. But for the present only 

 the northwest section of the work is to 



be undertaken. The outlay for this part 

 will be $16,000,000. 



Investigation has shown that the soil 

 covering this proposed new land now 

 under water is extremely rich and, when 

 drained, will not require fertilizing for 

 40 or 50 years. To one sailing over these 

 waters, their conversion into gardens and 

 fields appears a stupendous undertaking; 

 but history proves it possible, for al- 

 though 400 years were required to wrest 

 Flemish Zealand from the sea, by patient, 

 persevering toil it was successfully ac- 

 complished. 



IN THE PFAT-BOG REGION 



Continuing northeast from Marken, we 

 enter the great peat district — the prov- 

 inces of Drenthe and Groningen. Here 

 thousands of men are engaged cutting, 

 drying, and shipping this valuable turf, 

 which, owing to the scarcity and high 

 cost of coal, is the fuel in general use 

 throughout the Netherlands. The vast 

 stretches of desolate peat moors in 

 Drenthe are inhabited by a type of peo- 

 ple said to be quite distinct from other 

 Hollanders. 



Living in turf huts, widely separated 

 from each other and having little inter- 

 course with the outside world, they re- 

 mind one of the old fisherman who, when 

 asked by the tourist, "Have you lived 

 here all your life?" replied, "Not yit." 

 "Well, Captain," the inquirer continued, 

 "What do you do when the long winter 

 nights come?" Thoughtfully, as the old 

 salt seemed to be recalling those lonely 

 hours, he answered, "Oh, I set and think, 

 and sometimes I just set." 



THE BUEB THAT BURST 



In the springtime the flat country near 

 the city of Haarlem, lying a few miles 

 west of Amsterdam, is for the time being 

 the beauty spot of Holland. As far as 

 the eye can reach, the country is carpeted 

 with great patches of tulip, hyacinth, nar- 

 cissus, and daft'odil blossoms in masses 

 of most brilliant colors (see page 22). 



During the seventeenth century many 

 of the staid, conservative Dutchmen lost 

 their heads, as well as their fortunes, in a 

 wild speculating craze in these innocent 

 bulbs, which was so wide-spread and se- 



