The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-04-28

the farmers are now and then seen fishing up from
the bottom for manure. never saw the fields they
put it on, and suppose twas intended for their cab
bage gardens.
Shortly after passing the Hague, saw in the d.
recton of the ssa-coast line of rolling hills, winch
rising they did out of dead level, seemed oil con-
siderable height | was surprised to behold such
range Of little mountains in the midst oil such nat
country. but my guide book informed mat 'hey
of the sngularities OF tins anomalous couh
try They are called the dunes and are nothing more
than vast sand-banks raised by the wind from the sea-
shore-a magnied representation of those which ex-
isl ON our little islands. For considerable distance
along the coast these dunes form natural barrier
against the nroads of the sea, and save the people
the trouble and expense of dykes The misfortune
is, that they are not immoveabe they have in some
instances changed place, and produced sort OF in
undation, burying the land beneath heap of sand
and rendering it unfit for cultivation. To put stop
to this evil, the dunes are sowed with particular
sort of grass which takes root in the sand and pre-
vents it from being blown about By repeated crops
of this kind it has been found possible to cover these
sandhills with soil sufficiently fertile to produce po-
tatoes and other vegetables.
There is not fierce of any sort to be seen in all
Holland, or very rarely; their place being supplied
by the canals, which, with the windmills, are made
TO subserve surprising variety of purposes. Inc
greatest cluster Of windms that have ever seen,
is that of Saardam. | first espied them few miles
from Amsterdam, while looking across the river
upon the vast and naked plain which stretches out
towards the sea. was at first puzzled to discover
the nature of that nnumerabe forest of white sails,
and was inclined TO take them for great fleet OF yes
sels But nearer view showed their long arms
turning rapidly through the air, as if they had been
host of Don Quxotes giants, waging indiscrlminate
war upon each other | was told that there were no
less than five hundred wndmlls in that little town.
The Dutch employ wind like other nations do steam;
the wrdmils Of Saardam grind corn, make paper,
press oil saw timber, make snuff, drain land, sc. sc.
Saardam is the place where Peter the Great worked
as shipcarpener and the rude little house in which
he lived still receives the visits of muIttudes of the
curious,
| Amsterdam too, is surrounded by a circle of wind
mills, which, like the steeples and domes, come in
for their share of the view. As crossed the canal
which surrounds the city my oliacores were saluted
by such concentration of miasmatc odors, as you
can only have faint conception of by approaching
one of our muddy ponds laid bare to the sun when
the thermometer is at 80 deg Having expressed by
visible signs my dislike for this sort of introduction
into the great commercial emporium, ! was cons led
by the promise Of of my fellow-ravellers that
should encounter the nuisance no where else in Am
sterdam-an assurance that not altogether justi-
fled by the result the canals of Amsterdam abound
in odors as intense as they are various
l.. S. j., Jr
ha mad \