MORE ABOUT THE DIKES AND DITCHES.

The pilot of the ship was discharged at eight o’clock in the evening, and the two vessels stood on their course to the northward, with a fresh breeze from the south-west.  They kept just outside of the continuous chains of shoals on the coast, but for nearly the whole time within sight of the numerous lighthouses which mark the various entrances of the Scheldt and the Maas.  The masters on duty were kept very busy in consulting the charts and the sailing directions; but at one o’clock the squadron was off the Brielle Gat, which is the deepest entrance to the river.

There are two principal passages by which vessels may reach Rotterdam from the sea.  At the mouth of the Maas, or of the river which includes the Rhine, Waal, and Maas, there is a large island called the Voorne.  At the north of it is the Brielle Gat, which is the most direct sea passage to the city; but the bar at its mouth has only seven and a half feet of water at low tide.  At the south of the island is the Goeree Gat, by which the largest ships must enter, passing through the island in a canal.

The Dutch pilot who boarded the ship, after learning her draught, declared that she could go over the bar of the Brielle Gat, and both vessels went up by this passage.  At five o’clock in the morning the squadron came to anchor in the broad bay before the city of Rotterdam.

Paul Kendall, free from all care, and not much disturbed by the cloud which hung over him, had turned out early to see the sights on the river.  He had a splendid prospect of windmills, dikes, and ditches.  The Dutch pilot spoke intelligible English, and the young inquirer laid him under contribution for his stores of knowledge.  Paul asked a great many questions, which the pilot good-naturedly answered.

Vlaardingen, the principal port engaged in the herring fishery, was pointed out to him.  Every year this place sends out about a hundred and fifty vessels, or more than one half of the whole number engaged in this branch of the fisheries.  On the 10th or 11th of June, in each year, the officers of the herring fleet go to the Stadhuis, or town hall, and take the prescribed oath to observe the laws regulating the fisheries of Holland.  Three days later they hoist their flags on board, and go to church to pray for a season of success.  On the following day, which is kept as a holiday in the town, the fleet sails.  The fishing season ends on the 1st of November.

The herring are highly prized by the Dutch, and the first which are caught by the fleet are sent home in the fastest vessels; and when they are expected, watchmen are stationed in the Vlaardingen steeple to announce their approach.  The first kegs are sent to the king and his chief officers of state.  One of these first cargoes produces about three hundred and twenty-five dollars, or eight hundred guilders.

With a dense cloud of smoke hanging above it stood the town of Schiedam, which contains nearly two hundred distilleries for the manufacture of gin.  Holland gin and Schiedam schnapps are regarded by those who indulge in these beverages as the best in the world.  The place was surrounded by windmills, which are a principal feature of the scenery in all parts of Holland proper.

After breakfast the signal was hoisted for the Josephines to attend the lecture on board the ship, and a boat was sent ashore, in charge of the steward, to procure the mail.  The students were perched in the rigging, observing the strange scenes which presented themselves on every hand.  The river was full of market boats loaded with vegetables, the principal of which was a coarse plant, with large, straggling leaves, used as cabbage or greens.  There were large and small steamers plying in every direction, and the scene was quite lively.

The Josephine’s ship’s company came on board, and all hands were piped to lecture.  Professor Mapps was at his post, with the map of the Netherlands hanging on the foremast.  His description of the dikes and ditches of Holland was very full; but such portions of it as have been given by Mr. Stoute will be omitted.

“Young gentlemen,” he began, “I have already called your attention to the physical geography of the Netherlands.  The Rhine, which in Germany is the Rhein, and in Holland the Rhyn, has its mouths in Holland.  Its length is nine hundred and sixty miles, and it is of vast importance to Europe in a commercial point of view, being navigable for large vessels to Cologne, and nearly to its source for smaller ones, though occasionally interrupted by falls and rapids above Basle.  Vessels of one hundred tons go up to Strasbourg.

“The Rhine enters Holland, and immediately divides into two branches, the southern being the Waal, and the northern retaining the original name.  The Waal is the larger of the two, and flows west until it unites with the Maas, or Meuse, in Belgium, on one of whose estuaries our ship now floats.  About ten miles below the Waal branch, the original Rhine divides again, the northern branch being called the Yssel, which flows north into the Zuyder Zee.  Thirty miles below the Yssel, it divides for a third time, the southern branch being called the Leek, of which the arm that flows by Rotterdam is the more direct continuation, though all these branches are connected by frequent cut-offs.  The original Rhine pursues its way to the German Ocean.  The dunes, or sand-hills, formerly closed up this branch, and for a long period the water did not flow through it; but at the beginning of the present century a canal was opened through the old bed.

“The Yssel formerly flowed into a fresh-water lake, where the Zuyder Zee, or Southern Sea, now is.  Nearly the whole of the space occupied by this sea was then dry land; but the ocean, in the course of time, swept away its barriers, and covered the region with water, which is navigable, however, only for small vessels.  Amsterdam is situated on an arm of this sea, called the Ij, or Eye, as it is pronounced.  From the Helder, a point of land at the southern entrance to the Zuyder Zee, a ship canal, fifty miles in length, extends to the city.  This is the ‘great ditch’ of Holland.  It is eighteen feet deep, and broad enough for two large ships to pass each other, having a double set of locks at each end, in order to keep the water of uniform height, as in a dock.

“You are already familiar with the peculiar conformation of Holland.  There is not a hill, a forest, or a ledge of rocks worth mentioning in the whole region.  A large portion of its territory has been redeemed from the ocean by the most persevering labor, and by the most unremitting care and watchfulness is it kept from destruction.  The sea is higher than the land, the lowest ground in the country being from twenty-four to thirty feet below high-water mark.  The keel of the Young America, floating in some of the waters of Holland, would be higher than the ridge-pole of the Dutchman’s cottage on the other side of the dike.

“These low grounds, formerly swamps and lagoons, which lie below the sea level, are called polders.  These were originally charged with water, and merely shutting out the sea was only half the battle.  As in Ireland, the principal fuel of the people is peat, or turf, ten million tons of which are annually used.  Immense excavations have been made in the polders to obtain the peat; and the inhabitants stand an ultimate chance of being robbed of their country by fire as well as by water.

“The natural lakes and the peat-holes-the latter from twelve to twenty feet deep-formed extensive water-basins.  Some of you will remember the turf diggings in the great bog in Ireland, as we passed through it on our way to Killarney.  The peat was not dug out in trenches, but the entire surface of the land was skimmed off, just as workmen in the city dig away a hill.  It was so in Holland; and you must understand that the bottom of these peat-beds forms the land now improved as gardens and farms.

“These depressions of the surface were filled with water.  The first thing to be done is to shut out the ocean and its tributaries-all those rivers of which I have been speaking, that form a network of canals all over the country.  For this purpose a dike is built on the border of the land to be enclosed.  Take, for example, the Island of Ysselmonde,-the land next south of us,-and Holland really consists of nothing but islands formed by the rivers and the natural and artificial canals.  It will, therefore, be a correct specimen of the system of dikes and ditches throughout the country, though some of the sections are subject to greater or less difficulty in the drainage, owing to various causes, which will be explained.

“When the dike around Ysselmonde is finished, the country is protected from inundation from without.  Sometimes in winter the river may be blocked with ice, which stops the passage of the water.  All the ice from the Rhine and Meuse must pass through these rivers on their way to the sea, and, being stopped in a narrow place, it forms a dam.  In 1799 a large portion of Holland was threatened with total destruction, on account of one of these blockades.  Behind the dam the water rose seven feet in one hour, overflowing the dikes, and breaking through them.  This danger is incurred every winter; but disaster is generally warded off by the vigilance of the dike-keepers.

“We will suppose that the dike we have built around Ysselmonde protects it from the exterior water; but as the water in the Maas, at high tide, or even at low tide, is above the surface of the polders, they cannot be drained by the ordinary ditches; and it is necessary to remove the water by mechanical means.  For this purpose windmills are erected on the dike,-as you see them in every direction,-many of which work water-wheels, pumps being but seldom used.  The apparatus for removing the water is of several kinds, including a scoop-wheel, the screw of Archimedes, and the inclined scoop-wheel.  The water is not lifted to any considerable height by these instruments.

“When the height to which the water is to be raised is too great to be accomplished by the agency of one machine, a series of them is introduced.  Supposing the land in the middle of Ysselmonde to be twenty feet below the level of the Maas, four series of operations would be required to lift the water.  The central portion is enclosed by a dike, with a ringsloot, or canal, outside of it.  The windmills raise the water five feet.  Outside of this, as the level of the land rises, another canal and ditch are made, and the water is lifted another five feet; and the process is repeated until the water is finally discharged into the river.  The ditches which separate the different tracts of land are used as highways, for conveying the harvest to market, the difference of level being overcome by locks.  Of course the character of these works depends upon the formation of the land.

“The soil of the polders thus drained is remarkably rich and productive.  The two chief exports of Holland are butter and cheese, the low lands furnishing excellent pasturage for cattle.

“In the service of the government is a special corps of engineers, called Waterstaat, who are employed in watching the waters and the dikes, and in guarding against any breaking of the latter.  In the winter time, which is the period of the greatest peril to the dikes, these men, many of whom are gentlemen of the highest scientific culture, are stationed near the places where danger is apprehended.  Buildings containing all the necessary materials and tools for repairing the embankments are provided, and, indeed, all precautions which skill, and science, and care can bring are at hand; for the safety of the country depends upon these structures.

“The coat of arms of one of the Dutch provinces is a lion swimming, having this motto:  Luctor et emergo, ’I strive and keep my head above water,’ which seems to be the whole business of the Dutch people, figuratively and literally.  If you visit the great dike of the Helder, as I hope you will, you may stand on the low land within it, and hear the thunder of the sea, as it beats against the dike, fifteen feet higher than your head.

“The canals of Holland serve a triple purpose.  They are the highways of the country, they drain the land, and they serve as fences.  You travel all over the region in the canals, and all the productions are conveyed upon them.  The roads are for the most part built on the tops of the dikes, but they are not solid enough to permit their use by heavily-loaded wagons.  Many of them are paved with bricks, on account of their spongy nature, which answers very well for the passage of light vehicles.

“The people seem to have a peculiar affection for these ditches, and you will often find that the Dutchman has his little private canal, extending around his house, apparently only to gratify his national vanity, though perhaps really it is his fence.  Even here in Rotterdam, I have noticed a filthy ditch, from four to ten feet wide, between the house and the road.  It is nearly filled with water, which is covered with a vile green scum.  The wonder is, that this stagnant water does not breed a pestilence.

“The principal canals are sixty feet wide, and six feet deep, though of course many in the cities and elsewhere, intended for the passage of large vessels, are broader and deeper.

“With this imperfect statement of the physical characteristics, as a basis for your observation, I leave the subject to say a few words about the government and history of the country.

“William III. is the present king of the Netherlands.  He is forty-seven years old, and is a lineal descendant of William of Orange, and a grandson, on the mother’s side, of Czar Paul I. of Russia.  He has a salary, or civil list, of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, which is pretty fair pay for ruling over a kingdom about the size of the State of Maryland, or of Massachusetts and Connecticut united, and containing a population about equal to that of the State of New York.

“The government is a limited monarchy, the whole legislative power being vested in the two chambers called the States General.  The First Chamber consists of thirty-nine members, elected by provincial councils, from those inhabitants who pay the highest grade of taxes.  The Second Chamber contains seventy-two members, elected by general ballot; but only those who pay taxes to the amount of fifty dollars a year are voters.  All measures appropriating money for any purpose must originate in the Second Chamber, which is the popular body, and become laws only when assented to by the sovereign and the First Chamber.  The king executes the laws with the aid of seven ministers, who receive a salary of five thousand dollars a year.

“Free toleration is allowed to all religious sects.  Protestants are largely in the majority, the proportion being as twenty to twelve.  Education is generally diffused among the people.  In 1863 the revenue of the Netherlands amounted to forty-one millions of dollars.  The Dutch have extensive colonial possessions in the East and West Indies, and on the west coast of Africa.  The regular home army contains fifty-nine thousand officers and men.  Its navy consists of fifty-eight steamers and eighty-one sailing vessels.

“I do not think you will be likely to realize the poetic ideal of the Dutchmen, young gentlemen.  Though they drink a great deal of beer and Schiedam schnapps, you will seldom find them intoxicated; and I have never been able to see that they smoke any more than the people of our own country.  They are not necessarily fat and clumsy.  The men are of medium stature, in no special degree distinguished from other people in Europe and America.  The women are very domestic, and very cleanly in their persons and in their dwellings.  The Dutch people are prudent, economical, beforehanded.

“In the brief sketch I gave you at Antwerp of the history of the Netherlands, that of Holland was included up to the period of the murder of the Prince of Orange, which occurred in 1584, while he was Stadtholder of the Seven United Provinces.  At his death, his son, Prince Maurice, was elected Stadtholder in his father’s place.  He was then only seventeen years of age, but he proved to be a young man of great military ability, and commenced a glorious career, which ended only with his life, in 1625.  With the bright example of Prince Maurice before them, I think our young captains of his age may be encouraged.”

This remark “brought down the house,” and more than fifty of the students glanced at Paul Kendall, whose “improbable” achievements in the Josephine were the admiration of everybody in the squadron, except Professor Hamblin.

“Philip II. died in 1598, and his successor continued his efforts to conquer the Dutch, but without success.  By this time Holland had created the most powerful navy in the world, and with her seventy thousand seamen swept the commerce of the Spaniards from the seas, even in the remotest waters of the globe.  The galleons and treasure ships from the colonies of Spain were captured, and their rich booty poured into the exchequer of the Dutch.  The monarch of Castile was almost impoverished by these losses; and, deprived of the means to carry on the war of subjugation, he agreed, in 1609, to a truce of twelve years.

“Religious dissensions then broke out in Holland, which soon assumed a political turn.  The Stadtholder, Prince Maurice, was ambitious to become the hereditary sovereign of Holland, in which he was opposed by Barneveldt, a venerable judge, aided by De Groot, or Grotius, a noted Dutch scholar and statesman.  The opposition were styled ‘remonstrants.’  The judge was charged with a plot to hand his country over to the tyranny of Spain; and though he was a pure patriot, he was condemned and executed.  Grotius, by an expedient which would have been deemed improbable in a novel, escaped from the Castle of Loevestein.

“At the expiration of the truce, Spain renewed her efforts to conquer Holland; but, after a war of twenty-seven years, the independence of the country was acknowledged in the peace of Westphalia.  During this period the Dutch maintained their supremacy on the sea, attacking the Spanish possessions in all parts of the world, and especially in the East Indies, where they commenced the foundation of their empire in that part of the globe.

“The growing naval power of Holland excited the apprehensions of England, and war was the consequence, in which the Dutch Admirals Van Tromp De Ruiter, and De Witt, as well as Admiral Blake of the British navy, won imperishable renown.

“Prince Maurice was succeeded at his death by his brother Henry; but, in 1650, the office of Stadtholder was abolished, and that of Grand Pensionary substituted.  John De Witt held the position.

“In 1668, France having seized upon the Spanish Netherlands, Holland united with England and Sweden to check the power of the French monarch; but Charles II., subsidized by Louis XIV. of France, deserted his ally.  England and France united, won Sweden over, and formed a league against Holland.  Louis invaded Holland with an army six times as large as the Dutch could bring into the field, and conquered three provinces.  The quarrel between the house of Orange and the party headed by the Grand Pensionary still continued to rage.  The supreme power was in the hands of the States General.  De Witt proposed to establish the government of Holland in the East India possessions, as Portugal did in Brazil, rather than submit.  The representative of the house of Orange encouraged the people to resist at home, and declared that he would ’die in the last ditch.’  As the formation of the country rendered it exceedingly probable that the ‘last ditch’ was to be found somewhere in Holland, the advice of this Prince of Orange was adopted.  The popular current turned in his favor, and against the Grand Pensionary, who was murdered by a mob at The Hague.

“The Prince of Orange was elected Stadtholder, and is known as William III.  Instead of seeking the ‘last ditch’ himself, he opened it for the benefit of the invaders.  The dikes were cut, and the country was so thoroughly inundated that the French army was forced to retire, after sustaining very heavy losses.  Peace was made with England in 1674, and three years later, the Stadtholder married Mary, daughter of James, Duke of York, who became king of England at the death of his brother Charles II.  By the revolution of 1688, William and Mary were declared joint sovereigns of England.

“When William III. died, his cousin and next heir was not recognized as Stadtholder of Holland, the anti-Orange party being in the ascendant.  A republic was again organized under Heinsius; but, in 1747, the prince again prevailed, and the line of the Stadtholders was resumed under William IV., who was succeeded by William V. In 1795 the Batavian Republic was established, under the influence of the French Revolution, France having conquered the country.

“In 1806, Napoleon remodelled the government, and placed his brother Louis, the father of the present French emperor, upon the throne.  Louis, who was a very moderate and sensible man, offended his brother by ruling his kingdom in the interest of Holland rather than France, and, after a brief reign of four years, was compelled to abdicate.  Napoleon then annexed Holland to France.

“At the downfall of Napoleon the Netherlands were erected into a kingdom, which included Belgium, as I have before stated, and the Prince of Orange was made king, under the title of William I. The present sovereign is his grandson.  The Belgian Revolution of 1830 deprived Holland of one half of its territory, and more than half of its people; but these events I mentioned in my lecture at Antwerp.”

Mr. Mapps retired, and Mr. Lowington took his place.

“Young gentlemen,” said the principal, “this afternoon we shall make a steamboat excursion to Dort, and through some of the arms of the sea, to enable you to see Dutch life from the water.  On Monday we shall start on a grand excursion through Holland, visiting the following places in the order in which they are mentioned:  Delft, The Hague, Leyden, Harlem, Amsterdam, Sardam, Broek, Alkmaar, The Helder, and Utrecht.  The programme will enable you to see all the interesting points of Holland, including the capital, the drained lake of Harlem, and the great dike of the Helder.

“The water of Holland is very bad, and drank in any considerable quantities would probably make you sick.  Spring water, brought from Utrecht in stone jars, may be obtained in the large towns.  Whenever it is practicable, I shall see that you are supplied with it; but avoid the common water.  You will now resume your studies.”

Mr. Hamblin took his place with the other professors, and the studies of the ship went on as usual.  The mail came on board, and, when school was dismissed, the letters were distributed.  The first lieutenant of the Josephine and Duncan were invited to the main cabin to give their evidence in regard to the trouble between Paul and the professor.