hrow out a network of
roots, and help to hold the whole structure firmly together. On the
dykes there are over 9,000 windmills always at work, pumping up water
to keep the land dry; and there are in the whole country nearly 1,150
miles of canals, for diverting the waters, a good many of their
bottoms being higher than the land they drain.

Every dyke in the land is under constant inspection, and every three
years the network of willow-twigs is renewed. It is one of the
strangest sensations in the world to stand at the foot of one of
these outer dykes at high tide and hear the angry breakers of the sea
dashing against the other side of the wall, at a height of 16 ft. or
18 ft. above your head.

From the beginning of their history until the present time the
Hollanders have had to fight the waters, and they will have to do so
as long as their country exists. There are two great sources of
danger--the sea and the rivers; and either left neglected would very
soon lead to hopeless ruin. There is therefore a great institution,
or society, in the country, called the Waterstaat, for watching and
controlling the water. Everybody in the land is obliged to obey its
commands. If any one see the water threatening to pour in, he must at
once give the alarm, and all the people of the district, and of all
the districts round about, must be summoned by the ringing of the
alarm-bells, and by the booming of cannon, and then old and young,
rich and poor, soldiers and public servants, must all set to work
together and fight the common foe.

Notwithstanding all the constant vigilance there are terrible stories
told in Holland of inundations. It is recorded that during thirteen
centuries there has been one great inundation, besides smaller
ones, every seven years. When that great flood came, in the end of
the thirteenth century, which formed the Zuyder Zee, 80,000 persons
were drowned; in 1421, in one night 72 villages and 100,000 persons
were swept away, and even so recently as the year 1855, there was a
great inundation which invaded the provinces of Gueldres and Utrecht,
and covered a great part of North Brabant.

[Illustration: COAST SCENE IN HOLLAND, WITH DYKED MARSHES.]

Most of these catastrophes occurred from the sudden rising of the
waters and the bursting of the dams; but it is not from these causes
only that the safety of the country is threatened. If you go into the
Museum at Leyden you will see some pieces of wood full of li