1052 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



THE WEIGH-HOUSE AT AIvKMAAR, 1 582 



In the canal are barges in which cheeses have been brought 

 to market 



long singing and skylarking, and cheese 

 carts continue to arrive in the darkness 

 and clatter along the stony pavements. 



Photos by Hugh M. Smith 

 CHEESES BEFORE THE WEIGH-HOUSE 



Therefore there is Httle 

 sleep for the visitor who 

 has come to Alkmaar the 

 day before to be ready for 

 the great sale. 



The market is held in a 

 large rectangular, stone- 

 paved square bounded on 

 one side by a canal and on 

 three sides by tall build- 

 ings occupied by shops 

 and restatirants. The 

 w^eigh-house, formed more 

 than three centuries ago 

 out of an already existing 

 church edifice, dominates 

 the market place. Its 

 shapely clock - tower has 

 moving figures of horse- 

 men in a tourney and a 

 beautiful carillon, one of 

 whose airs is the wedding 

 march from Lohengrin. 

 Fancy buying cheese 

 under such romantic cir- 

 cumstances ! 



The cheeses, whether in 

 wagons or boats, are not 

 carried in bulk, but are 

 carefully arranged in lay- 

 ers separated by boards to 

 prevent crushing or bruis- 

 ready for unloading, the 

 wagons are drawn as near as practicable 

 to the spaces assigned to their respective 

 owners, and the canal-boats are 

 moored alongside the quay ; then, 

 a piece of canvas having been 

 spread on the stones, the cheeses 

 are unpacked and arranged in 

 square or oblong piles with nar- 

 row walks between. Usually the 

 piles are 8 or lo cheeses wide 

 and 30 to 50 long, but some are 

 only six cheeses square, and the 

 piles are always two layers deep. 

 The largest single pile at the 

 market, here illustrated, con- 

 tained 900 cheeses. 



The unloading of the wagons 

 and boats is one of the most in- 

 teresting features of the market. 

 One man, standing in a wagon 

 or boat, takes two cheeses at 



mg. 



When 



