general is amassing a fortune, and the consul, one of the poor kinsmen of the new queen of France, is making rapid progress to opulence.

No. LXI.-EXCURSION TO AMSTERDAM.

Mode of travelling in the Trek Schuits-Canals-Appearance of the country-Cattle-Peat-Delft-Tombs of Van Tromp and De Ruyter-Ryswick-The Hague-Leidsendam--Beautiful country seats-Summer-houses-Holland a wonderful country -Leyden-Sprightliness of a Dutch party in the Trek SchuitHaarlem-Dutch women.

As we were unacquainted with the Dutch language, we took a travelling valet recommended to us by a friend. This is a kind of character almost unknown in our country, but not uncommon in Europe, and highly useful to strangers, and especially to Americans The one whom we engaged could speak French, Dutch, German, and English, and had long been accustomed to travel in the double capacity of servant and interpreter. His name was Albert, but he was familiarly called Lambert. He was about forty-five years old, a native of Brussels, and possessed strong recommendations from Americans of respectability with whom he had travelled. Although he did not consider it as his duty to do every menial service, he neglected no personal attention which was necessary to our comfort, and he was so perfectly acquainted with the smaller duties of his profession, that, without bidding, he would do a hundred things for one which it would have been impossible to have censured him for had he omitted them.

He

was also a man of considerable understanding, and possessed all that minute information which travellers want, concerning the interesting things of the country; and his appearance was so decent, that he might walk by one's side in the streets, and be both an attendant and a companion.

MODE OF TRAVELLING IN HOLLAND.

Having sent Lambert to engage places for us, we embarked, at one in the afternoon, on the canal leading to the Hague. We took passage in a Trek Schuit, which, in English, is a Drag Boat, and I was about to try a mode of travelling which had amused me much in the description.

It

The Trek Schuit is a boat, about fifty feet long, and eight or ten wide; it has a flat bottom, and is enclosed with perpendicular sides, and a flat top or roof, so that it forms a dry and comfortable retreat from the weather. locks somewhat like the pictures of the ark which are given in children's books; it is a kind of house in a boat. In the stern there is a small apartment called the deck; it is furnished with a table, cushions, and other conveniences, which make it comfortable, and give it an air of some elegance and taste; it is to the Trek Schuit what the cabin is to a ship. Its principal advantage is, that it affords a retirement, and any person, by sending and paying for it beforehand, may take it for himself and his friends, to the exclusion of every body else. This apartment we took. The remainder of the enclosed part of the boat is all in one apartment, which is furnished with benches, and is merely decent without elegance. This part, which answers to the steerage of a ship, is called the

hold; it has windows for air and light, and is commonly filled with a promiscuous crowd. In such a vehicle we commenced our journey.

The boats are drawn, each by a single horse, harnessed to a rope which is connected with the Schuit; they go at the rate of three miles an hour. The horse travels along the bank of the canal, at the distance of sixty or eighty feet ahead of the boat, that the cord by which the boat is drawn, may be, as nearly as possible, parallel with the side of the canal, with which, however, it always forms a small angle. A boy rides the horse, a man stands in the bow to manage the cord, and another in the stern to take care of the rudder, and prevent the boat from being drawn to the side of the canal. As the mode of travelling on the canals is every where precisely the same, I will finish the subject now.

The motion is so perfectly smooth, that if the passenger withdraws his eyes from the objects on shore, he cannot perceive that he is moving; in the hinder apartment, the deck, one can read, write, think, or sleep, without any other disturbance than that of the helmsman hallooing to the boy, or to the man in the bow. At first I was beyond measure delighted with a mode of travelling so novel, so quiet, and so easy, but, the slowness of the motion and the perfect uniformity of all the arrangements soon

made it tedious.

When the Schuit passes under a bridge, the man in the bow slips the string from the top of the mast, to which it is usually tied; the horse continues on, and so does the boat on account of the momentum which it has already acquired; the man in the bow catches the string, as it falls from the other side of the bridge, and slips it on to

the mast again, and all this is done without any sensible hinderance to the boat. The mast is never very high, but as it is not low enough to pass under the bridges, it is fitted with a hinge, so that it can be laid horizontally for this purpose, and then raised again. Even when the Schuits are travelling in opposite directions, the horses always go on the same side of the canal, for only one of the banks is formed into a road; to prevent any interference, one horse stops a moment, when the boats approach; the effect necessarily is, that the boat with which he is connected glides on, and the cord drops into the water and falls upon the ground, although it is still fast to the mast at one end and to the horse at the other. The boat which is proceeding in the opposite direction does not stop, but, at this favorable moment, glides over the string, while the horse which belongs to it passes without difficulty between the canal and the other horse, and at the same time steps over the cord as it lies upon the road. All this is so well understood that there is no confusion or embarrassment whatever in passing. Sometimes, when there is a sufficient difference in the height of the masts, the one passes under the cord of the other, without any care or obstruction.

Travelling in the Schuits is very cheap; it does not exceed two pence a mile, and although it is tedious, it is admirably adapted to the condition of the country; great numbers can go at once, with less expense than in any other way of transportation, and with entire safety and comfort, and the certainty of arriving at the appointed moment. This mode of travelling seems to afford a fair example of Dutch arrangements generally; it is economical of money, but expensive of time.

One day, being restless, on account of our tardy progress, I leaped to the shore, as the boat was, at that moment, passing near it, and walked on with all convenient speed. I found that I travelled faster than the Schuit. In half an hour the difference was perhaps the eighth of a mile, for the horses travel only on a very slow trot.

The canals are so wide that some of them look like great rivers; they vary in width from about fifty to three hundred feet or more, as I should judge; their general depth is about five feet. As the more usual fact their sides are formed of earth and sods, covered with a thick mat of grass; often they are supported by boards nailed to posts, and more rarely by brick walls.

A road for post-chaises commonly runs parallel with the foot-path in which the horse travels, but it is very narrow, and always has the canal on one side and a ditch on the other. When the canals intersect each other, the horse either crosses a bridge or is ferried over, and sometimes, one canal terminates abruptly, and there is a short carrying-place to the next, where there is another boat. with a fresh horse. The horses are always relieved every six miles, or once in two hours. On account of the equal motion of the Schuits, the Dutch reckon their distances by time; for example, from Rotterdam to the Hague is four hours or twelve miles; from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, is thirteen hours or thirty-nine miles, and this is the universal language in Holland. Hence it is that a Dutch mile is reckoned equal to three English. While a Dutchman travels three miles in an hour, an Englishman travels six or eight, and this is nearly the difference between the spirit and energy of the two nations. The one is enterprising and adventurous, and often rash; the other is cau