203
Dondrecht to the Hague.
1897.
July 24.
  Clear and sultry with light W. wind. Left the Hotel Pon-
sen at 8.30 A.M. and took a tram car across the town to the
Hotel Bellevue where we had to wait nearly an hour for the ar-
rival of the boat. I spent this time taking photographs.
  At 10 A.M. the boat arrived and we went on board. Like
most of the Dutch canal steamers she was of iron painted plain
black. The hull was long, narrow, low in the water and she
proved to be, as she looked, very fast. She was a screw
steamer but many of the boats seen to-day were "side wheelers".
  Our route lay through the De Noord canal and thence by
the Maas to Rotterdam. These water ways were simply crowded in
placed with steamers, barges and Dutch sailing craft of every
size and description. Aside from the great interest attaching
to these and to the picturesque Dutch houses I found the sce-
nery much more attractive and varied than I had expected. Ex-
tensive beds of tall, broad-leaved reeds (very like the cane-
like reeds that grow on Alewife Brook) alternated with meadow
pastures studded thickly with cattle and fields of grain or
vegetables. There were many thickets and small plantations of
low willows but no other trees save those which shaded the
village streets and houses and the long rows of elms or pop-
lars marking the dykes and public roads. The margins of the
canals were everywhere fringed with reeds, flags (very like
our sweet flag in general appearance) and low willows among