632 The National Geographic Magazine 



If you will enter, you will see but little 

 to suggest business activity and nothing 

 that is sumptuous in the way of furnish- 

 ing. In the high board partition are 

 many windows with closed shutters hav- 

 ing above a sign stating its functions. 

 After selecting the one that promises the 

 service you require, you approach, the 

 shutters open, and in whatever language 

 you find most convenient state your er- 

 rand. In a time that seems long to one 

 accustomed to the rush of American 

 cities, the business is dispatched, and you 

 leave, wondering how this can be the 

 great institution that takes such a large 

 share in the world's transactions. Ex- 

 press your wonder to your consul, and 

 he will tell you how one of its officers 

 just left with an invoice covering a ship- 

 ment of a million dollars' worth of bonds 

 to the United States, and how he would 

 not be surprised if a similar visit should 

 be made every day of the week. He 

 could tell you that the Dutch are the sec- 

 ond largest holders of American securi- 

 ties, and that governments seldom make 

 loans until the Amsterdam bankers are 

 consulted regarding the terms proposed. 

 The Bank of Amsterdam was founded 

 in 1609, for the purpose of issuing guar- 

 anteed certificates, which are known in 

 our day as bank notes. Against these 

 notes coin was held, at one time reaching 

 the enormous sum of $180,000,000. The 

 business world was so confident of the 

 solvency of the bank that these certifi- 

 cates were universally at a premium. 

 The bank was under the management of 

 the Amsterdam corporation, the chiefs 

 of which examined the treasure annually 

 and made oath that it was of the amount 

 stated by the managers. It should be 

 mentioned that this institution antedated 

 the Bank of England by nearly a cen- 

 tury. 



GAUGING THE) WATER LEVEL 



From my window I can see in the 

 canal, against its walled face, a board 

 projecting above the water. With its 

 black horizontal lines and figures it looks 

 like a giant thermometer without the 

 tube of mercury. At the top are the let- 

 ters A. P., and the numbers have minus 



signs. If one watches the water level, 

 one will observe that day by day there is 

 a slight fluctuation in the point reached 

 by the water's surface. A single ques- 

 tion would elicit the information that 

 this is a gauge, that the letters A. P. sig- 

 nify the bench-mark of Amsterdam, or 

 the zero to which all water levels are 

 referred, and that the minus sign indi- 

 cates that the water thus recorded is 

 below this zero. When you first learn 

 that the water upon which you are look- 

 ing is below the level of the sea you 

 shudder ; when you are told that a large 

 part of Holland is lower than the ocean 

 that beats against its shores you tremble. 

 There are many such gauges placed in 

 the canals of Holland, and, being con- 

 nected by precise levels, the markings on 

 all are exact in reference to the Amster- 

 dam zero. 



Since a large number of smaller canals 

 are emptied by wind pumps into each 

 larger and higher one, the pumping at 

 each transfer station cannot be unlim- 

 ited, for then water might be put into a 

 canal more rapidly than it could be 

 pumped out. Then, too, the final canals 

 emptying into the sea have their dis- 

 charge limited by the height of the tide 

 at their mouths. Thus it is necessary 

 that at each station the height of water 

 should have a fixed and defined limit. 

 Then the man in charge of each station 

 is told that he must not pump after the 

 water in the receiving canal has reached 

 a certain height, and that the water in 

 the lower canal should be kept below a 

 certain level — that is, if it rises above 

 that height there is danger of an over- 

 flow. From this it can be seen that a 

 local engineer might be embarrassed by 

 conflicting orders. He may be forbid- 

 den to pour water into one canal because 

 it is ready to overflow, and know at the 

 same time that the lower canal is dan- 

 gerously full. Fortunately for him, he 

 is not called upon to worry about this. 

 The latter condition had already been 

 observed by the district inspector, and 

 notices served that pumping into this 

 lower canal should cease at once. The 

 canals still lower might thereby be in 

 danger of overflow, but that would cause 



