anal-boats than
sea-going vessels. Some of them had wings, or boards, at their sides,
which were let down when the craft was going on the wind, thus serving
the same purpose as a centreboard. Others were rigged so that their
masts could be lowered to the deck in passing bridges.

Maps, guide-books, and other volumes of reference were in great demand
among the students, and Professor Stoute was continually questioned by
all hands. Mr. Hamblin was too grouty to permit any such familiarity,
and doubtless he was saved from exposing his ignorance of the
interesting country which the voyagers had now entered.

The West Scheldt, upon whose waters the Josephine was now sailing, is
sometimes called the Hond. On the left, and in plain sight from the
deck, was Walcheren, the most extensive of the nine islands which
constitute the province of Zealand, the most southern and western
division of the kingdom of Holland. Zeeland, or Zealand, means
_sea-land_; and its territory seems to belong to the ocean, since it is
only by the most persevering care that the sea is prevented from making
a conquest of it. These islands are for the most part surrounded and
divided by the several mouths of the Scheldt, all of which are
navigable.

Our readers who have been on the sea-shore where the coast is washed by
the broad ocean, or any considerable bay, have observed a ridge of sand,
gravel, or stones thrown up from ten to twenty feet higher than the land
behind. This was caused by the action of the sea. The exterior shore of
Holland, that is, the land bordering upon the open ocean, has generally
a ridge of sand of this description. The sand-hills or hummocks which
are observed on the shores of Holland and Belgium are produced by the
ceaseless beating of the stormy waves.

In Holland, these ridges, or chains of sand-hills, are called "dunes."
They extend, with little interruption, from the Straits of Dover to the
Zuyder Zee. The ridge is from one to three miles wide, and rising from
twenty to fifty feet in height. The sand of which the "dunes" are
composed is generally so fine that it is readily blown by a sharp wind;
and they were as troublesome as the sands of Sahara in a simoom. In a
dry and windy day, the atmosphere would become dim from the sand smoke
of the dunes, and the material was conveyed in this manner far into the
interior of the country, covering up the rich soil, so that it became
necessary to dig up the sand. To overcome this ev