As Seen from a Dutch Window 



625 



return to the subject. Testy Voltaire on 

 leaving Holland said : "Adieu canaux, 

 canards, canaille." He could not have 

 said it before leaving, for there are 

 canals everywhere — canals large enough 

 to float an ocean steamer and canals so 

 small that they barely admit the boat in 

 which the milkmaid, usually a man, goes 

 out to milk.- But I have never seen a 

 canal too large or too small for the fish- 

 erman's line. Along the bank of every 

 one, small boys and large boys may be 

 seen waiting for a bite or "a glorious 

 nibble." I have watched hundreds of 

 persons thus engaged and I have seen as 

 many fish in duly authenticated baskets, 

 but I have never seen a fish in its proper 

 juxtaposition with respect to the fisher- 

 man. I have set on the bank beside the 

 patient waiter, and as the cork trembled 

 just a little he would say, with a wise 

 look, "That's a cat" or "That's a flat." 

 He did not know, but his surmise was as 

 pleasurable as knowing, and as he lifted 

 the baitless hook from the water his face 

 wore the look of "I told you so." Surely 

 the lone fisherman was a Dutchman. 



First and foremost, the canals are 

 drains, except in rare instances ; the 

 traffic-carrying is incidental. In the 

 country, since most of the land is below 

 the level of the sea, the soil must be 

 drained before it can be cultivated. 

 Ditches are dug, into which the water 

 runs ; then, as these ditches become full, 

 the water is pumped into others having 

 higher banks ; then from the latter into 

 others still higher, until finally sea-level 

 is reached, and the outflowing tide car- 

 ries the water oceanward. The ordinary 

 laws of nature are reversed. Here the 

 drainage is from a lower to a higher 

 level. In the early steps the water is lifted 

 by wind power, but soon the volume be- 

 comes so great and such a large area of 

 land is interested in its prompt handling 

 that the state erects a pumping station 

 and a trusted official sees to it that the 

 water in his canal does not remain above 

 its assigned level. 



CITIES BUILT ON PII^S 



Thus it is that these drains become 

 waterways. Their banks, made of sandy 



earth, require reinforcement ; they must 

 be faced with stone or fortified by piles 

 large or small. In the case of the larger 

 streams, these banks become dikes, and 

 both stone and piles are needed in order 

 to keep the water within the bounds. 

 There is not a stone quarry in Hol- 

 land, yet it has more stonework to the 

 square mile than any other country in 

 the world. Its forests are not sufficient 

 to furnish the inhabitants with fuel ; still 

 it has millions of great tree trunks 

 wholly underground, driven in to serve 

 as building foundations or hold in check 

 the washing waters. The great dikes 

 along the North Sea, on both sides of the 

 River Maas, skirting the Rhine and the 

 Zuyder Zee, are faced with piles as close 

 together as they can be driven, each one 

 of which cost four dollars to put in 

 place. They are backed up by dressed 

 German basalt or Norwegian granite. 

 If Napoleon claimed Holland because it 

 was formed of detritus carried down by 

 the Meuse and the Rhine, Norway and 

 Germany might demand a reward for 

 holding it. 



It is always fascinating to watch a pile- 

 driver ; to see it swing a great log erect 

 and into place, and then with stroke after 

 stroke drive it home. I inspected the 

 building operations ; saw the men, pro- 

 vided with high-top boots, clearing away 

 the foundations. A steam pump was in- 

 dustriously striving to keep the water 

 out and the pile-driver was thumping 

 away. One morning the entire founda- 

 tion was full of water, and a second 

 pump was called into action. At last 

 rows of piles were in place, rows like the 

 teeth of a comb ; but the pump could not 

 stop. The tops of the piles were cut off 

 at the same height ; tenons cut on them 

 and great horizontal beams mortised to 

 them. The space between these beams 

 is filled with sand and the whole is cov- 

 ered with heavy flooring, but the pump 

 'kept up its monotonous throbbing. On 

 this floor the brick walls are erected, and 

 soon there stood a great six-story build- 

 ing on wooden feet. When will the 

 pumping cease? Never. Under the 

 building there is a catch-basin, and 

 whenever it becomes full it must be emp- 



