s, art tiles, glassware, and cheap crockery are made
in the line of kilns that reaches almost from one end of the coal-field
to the other; these products, moreover, are extensively exported.

The railways are owned and operated by the state. They are managed so
judiciously, moreover, that the rates of carriage are lower than in most
European states. The Scheldt is navigable for large ocean steamers to
_Antwerp_, and this city is the great Belgian port for ocean traffic.
The city owes its importance to its position. One branch of the Scheldt
leads toward the Rhine; the other is connected by a canal with the
rivers of France; the main stem of the river points toward London. It is
therefore the meeting of three ways. It is the terminal of the
steamships of American, and of various other lines. It is also the depot
of the Kongo trade. Ship-canals deep enough for coasters and freighters
connect _Ghent_, _Bruges_, and _Brussels_ with tide-water. These are
about to be converted to deep-water ship-canals.

The foreign commerce of Belgium is much like that of other European
states. Wheat, meat, maize, cotton, and petroleum are imported mainly
from the United States; iron ore is purchased from Luxemburg and
Germany, and various raw materials are brought from France. In exchange
there are exported fine machinery, linen fabrics, porcelains, fire-arms,
glassware, and beet-sugar. From the Kongo state, at the head of which is
the King of the Belgians, are obtained rubber and ivory. The rubber is
sold mainly to the United States.

_Brussels_ is the capital and financial centre. On account of the state
control of the railways, it is also the directive centre of all the
industries pertaining to commerce and transportation.

=Holland.=--The names Holland and Netherlands mean "lowland," and the
state itself has a lower surface than any other country of Europe.
Nearly half the area is at high-tide level or else below it. A large
part, mainly the region about the Zuider[71] Sea, has been reclaimed
from the sea.

In the reclamation of these lands stone dikes are built to enclose a
given area, and from the basin thus constructed the water is pumped. The
reclaimed lands, or "polders," include not only the sea-bottom, but the
coast marshes as well; even the rivers are bordered with levees in order
to prevent overflows. Windmills are the machinery by which the water is
pumped from the polders into the sea. In no other part of the world is
wi