of the river, extending from the middle of the left side
of the triangle to the opposite angle. The part of Rotterdam which
lies between the two dykes consists of large canals, islands, and
bridges: this is the modern town; the other part, lying beyond the
second dyke, is the old town. Two large canals extend along the other
two sides of the city up to the vertex, where they join and meet a
river called the Rotte, which name, prefixed to the word dam, meaning
dyke, gives Rotterdam.

When I had thus performed my duty as a conscientious traveller, and
had observed a thousand precautions against defiling, even with a
breath, the spotless purity of that jewel of a room, I entered my
first Dutch bed with the timidity of a country bumpkin.

Dutch beds--I am speaking of those to be found in the hotels--are
usually short and wide, with an enormous eider-down pillow which would
bury the head of a cyclops. In order to omit nothing, I must add that
the light is generally a copper candlestick as large as a plate, which
might hold a torch, but contains instead a short candle as thin as the
little finger of a Spanish lady.

In the morning I dressed in haste, and ran rapidly down stairs.

What streets, what houses, what a town, what a mixture of novelties
for a foreigner,--a scene how different from any to be witnessed
elsewhere in Europe!

First of all, I saw Hoog-Straat, a long straight roadway running along
the inner dyke of the city.

Most of the houses are built of unplastered brick, ranging in color
through all the shades of red from black to pink. They are only wide
enough to give room for two windows, and are but two stories in
height. The front walls overtop and conceal the roofs, running up and
terminating in blunted triangles surmounted by gables. Some of them
have pointed facades, some are elevated in two curves, and resemble a
long neck without a head; others are indented step-fashion, like the
houses children build with blocks; others look like conical pavilions;
others like country churches; others, again, like puppet-shows. These
gables are generally outlined with white lines and ornamented in
execrable taste; many have coarse arabesques painted in relief on
plaster. The windows, and the doors too, are bordered with broad white
lines; there are other white lines between the different stories of
the houses; the spaces between the house-and shop-doors are filled in
with white woodwork; so all along the street whit