484 



THE NETHEELANDS. 



Holland, and although a bulb can no longer be sold for £2,000, the cultivation of 

 tulips is still carried on with great profit. 



Zaandam (12,778 inhabitants), only 5 miles to the north-west of Amsterdam, 

 is one of the most curious towns in the Netherlands. Nowhere else are windmills 

 more numerous, and they are employed in the most varied branches of industry, 

 grinding corn, crushing oil seeds, sawing timber, and doing other work. The 

 house which Peter the Great inhabited when he worked here as a ship's carpenter 

 is still pointed out, but there are no longer any ship-yards. 



Alhmaar (12,245 inhabitants) stands almost in the centre of the peninsula of 



Fig. 274. — Alkmaar. 

 Scale 1 : 150,000. 



2 Miles 



Holland, and carries on an important trade in cheese and tobacco. At Bergen, 

 a village to the north-west, the French, in 1799, defeated an Anglo-Russian army. 

 The Helder (22,030 inhabitants), a strongly fortified town with a harbour of 

 refuge and naval arsenal, occupies the extremity of the peninsula, and its guns 

 sweep the passage of the Hellsdeur, or Hell-gate, which leads into the Zuider Zee. 

 Near it De Ruyter achieved one of his great victories. Amongst the towns along 

 the western shore of the Zuider Zee there is not one of importance. Medemhlik 

 (2,187 inhabitants), Enkhuizen (5,500 inhabitants), and Room (9,764 inhabitants), 

 formerly famous seaports, are decayed, and only carry on a coasting trade in 

 cheese and other agricultural produce, as do also Momiickendam (2,733 inhabitants) 



