Living and Dead Cities of the Zuyder Zee, Part I [pp. 150-156]

LIVIN-G AVD DEAD CITIES OF THE ZUYDER ZEE.
enough to escape overflow reaped a rich harvest. constitute ourselves invisiblepassengers on board the
The fisheries of the Zuyder Zee became the nursery tjalk as it left Amsterdam one bright Monday mornof those hardy mariners whose sails in time whitened inig in June, I873.
all oceans, who withstood the whole might of Spain, Amsterdam, the busy metropolis of the Netherand disputed with England the supremacy of the lands, with its three hundred thousand inhabitants,
seas. Upon its shores and adjacent lagoons were although nrow upon the Zuyder Zee, is by no means
enacted the great scenes of the Dutch war for inde- one of its dead cities. It stands upon an inlet called
pendence and the Protestant faith. League upon the Y, a mile or two broad, setting for fifteen miles
league of fertile soil, won by patient industry from westward from the southern extremity of the sea,
the waters, has been, in the course of four cen- forming a commodious harbor. The mouth of this
turies, transformed into the most densely - peo- inlet is closed by the great sluice of Schellingwoude,
pled, industrious, and wealthy grazing region of built of huge granite rocks brought from Norway,
Europe. sufficiently massive to shut out the waves of the sea,
Yet there is scarcely a portion of the civilized which might otherwise at any time lay the city under
world of which so little is known as of the shores of water. The gate of the sluice, wide enough to perthe Zuyder Zee. The famous towns which once mit the passage of five vessels abreast, is only opened
bordered it are emphatically dead cities. Monniken- at favorable tide. The real mouth of the harbor,
dam, Edam, Hoorn, Enkhuyzen, and Stavoren, fa- however, is not here, but at Helder, fifty miles to the
mous in the history of the middle ages and even north, on the extreme point of North Holland. A
down to their close, and still surrounded by a region ship-canal from Helder to the Y gives passage to
more densely-peopled and prosperous than ever, are large merchantmen, thus avoiding the difficult navilittle more than geographical names on the map. gation of the Zuyder Zee. Until the completion
Their once busy ports now send forth only a few of the Suez Canal this was the most stupendous
fishing-vessels; and the advent of a stranger ill their work of the kind in the world. It is fifty-one miles
streets is a matter for nine days' wonder. It is said long, one hundred and twenty-seven feet wide, and
that there are not in all Holland ten persons who twenty feet deep. But its mouth at Helder is somehave ever sailed clear around this sea, and visited what difficult of approach, and, in the winter, is ofall the old towns upon its shores, almost in sight of ten obstructed by ice, and the canal, moreover, is ineach other. Among this half-score are Henri Ha- sufficient for the increasing commerce. A new canal
yard and Heem kerck van Beest, who made this is now being constructed directly to the west coast,
voyage not quite three years ago, and who have de- which is to be fifteen miles long, one hundred and
scribed by pen and pencil what they saw.' fifty-six feet wide, and twenty-three feet deep. At
Contrary to what one might at first suppose, the its entrance into the North Sea an artificial harbor
Zuyder Zee, although there is not a rock in or near is in course of construction. It will be formed of
it, is a most dangerous sea to sail upon. There are two immense walls running a mile into the sea.
within it four little islets which rise only a few feet Starting nearly a mile apart, but gradually convergabove the water; but great shoals and sand-banks ing till at the seaward end the distance is only eight
spread themselves in every direction, covered by only hundred feet. This, when completed, will form the
two or three feet of yellow water. Among these main outer port of Amsterdam. It is also proposed
wind narrow channels ten or twenty feet deep, so to drain the Y, as Haarlem Lake, of seventy square
tortuous that a vessel must often tack every few rods, miles, has within a few years been drained, transand a sudden flaw of wind, or the slightest wrong forming its bed into a meadow, thus winning back
movement of the tiller, would imbed her inextricably miles of the old conquests won by the sea from the
in the sandy ooze. The rotting skeletons of innu- land.
merable wrecks are standing records of the dangers Our little tjalk, its red sail hoisted, moves slowly
of this shallow sea. M. Havard and his companion down the Y, passing in front of the picturesque city,
had no little difficuly in finding at Amsterdam the more marvelous than Venice, built in a swamp where
means of prosecuting the voyage. There was not a foundations for buildings must be made by driving
single skipper who had ever performed more than a piles for fifty feet. Nearly fourteen thousand of these
small portion of it. At last they found a master of had to be sunk to form the foundation of the palace.
a /jazk, a little sloop of sixty tons, who was willing Frequently these piles have sunk on one side a litto undertake the venture. "With God's help," he tle more than on another and the buildings often
said, "and a good wind, I trust we shall get through lean this way or that, like a company of tipsy solthe voyage." But, cautious seaman and sound diers. Every street has a canal running down its
Protestant as he was, he insisted upon two condi- centre, with pavements on each side. These are the
tions' "I must be sole judge as to the weather; if receptacles of all the garbage of the city, and even
it is stormy we will not put out to sea; and I will Dutch industry has not succeeded in making them
not work Sundays." The crew consisted of the other than noisome.
skipper himself, his wife, and one sailor. We will We leave Amsterdam behind us, passing villages
whose red roofs rise from green meadows, and, at
' The Dead Cities of the Zuyder Zee: A Voyage to the the sluice of Schellingwoude, find ourselves dePicturesque Side of Holland. From the French of Henri Ha- tained until the opening of the gates, amid a crowd
yard. London: I875. of fishing and coasting vessels. Among them is a
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