0. AND li. OANDLEIl’s NOTES FROM THE NETHERLANDS. 1G7 
forms the main waterway into the Zuyder Zee. The size of Texel 
is considerable ; the island is but slightly indented, and has a 
length from north to south of iifteen miles and a breadth from 
east to west of live miles. In comparison with the dead level of 
the North Holland polders, Texel is by no means flat ; the base of 
the island is formed of glacial drift, and its surface is relieved by 
swelling mounds of sand and gravel, one of which, called “ the 
lloogte,” is crowned by a line grove of trees and has a height of 
sixty-live feet. Along the whole length of the North Sea coast 
extends an unbroken range of sandhills, running generally in a 
double line, with a deep intervening valley, but expanding in the 
north and in the south into tracts of undulating dunes two miles 
in breadth, formed by four or live parallel ridges. Near the little 
hamlet of Hoorn is the highest point in the island, Loodsmansduin 
(the pilot’s dune), ninety-two feet above sea level. The south- 
eastern and north-eastern shores of the island are low, and are 
protected by massive dykes from the waves of the Zuyder Zee. 
Between the central hills of gravel and the sand dunes of the 
coast stretches a broad alluvial tract of pasture ground, in part wet 
and marshy, in other part a dry heath with a varying subsoil of 
sand or peat. Except the wood already mentioned, and the 
plantations around the decoys, there are very few trees of good 
growth upon the island, which has generally a bare, wind-swept, 
and unsheltered aspect. Texel possesses a fleet of fishing-boats, 
and many of the islanders are seafaring men ; but their chief 
source of wealth is a fine breed of sheep, yielding a heavy fleece 
and much milk, from which a strong and pungent green cheese is 
made. The sheep-breeders are friendly and hospitable, and many 
of them are well-read and cultured men. 
A steamer plies three times a day between Nieuwe Diep, on the 
mainland, and Glide Sehild, the port and fishing haven of Texel ; 
and in this little vessel we* crossed the Marsdiep in the afternoon 
of the 16 th June. From Oude Sehild we drove three miles to 
Den Burg, the chief town of the island, where we found comfort- 
able and homely quarters at the Hotel Lindeboom, kept by 
Captain Slijboom, a retired skipper in the Dutch merchant service. 
The conditions of our walk that evening were not favourable for 
# The Rev. H. C. Fitch, Mr. George Candler, and the writers, who are 
spokesmen for the party. 
