e from the water,
on account of an obliterating dyke. At the Helder one can consider
the rampart reasonable, but here, where there is no foe but the Zuyder
Zee, it may seem fantastic. If we lived there in winter, however, the
precaution would soon be justified, for the Zuyder Zee can on occasion
roar like a lion. It is odd to reflect that Volendam, Monnickendam and
Marken may become ordinary inland hamlets in the midst of green fields
if the great scheme for draining the Zuyder Zee is carried through.

If the people and village of Volendam are to be described in a
phrase, they may be called better Markeners in a better Marken. The
decoration of the pointed red-roofed houses is similar; there is the
same prevailing and very ingratiating passion for blue Delft--and
a very beautiful blue too; the clothes of the men and women have a
family resemblance. But Volendam is in every way better--although
its open drain is a sore trial: it is more human, more natural. The
men hold the record for Dutch taciturnity. They also smoke more
persistently and wear larger sabots than I saw anywhere else,
leaving them outside their doors with a religious exactitude that
suggests that the good-wives of Volendam know how to be obeyed. The
women discard the Marken ringlets and richness of embroidery, but in
the matter of petticoats they approach the Scheveningen and Huizen
standards. Their jewellery resolves itself into a coral necklace,
while the men wear silver buttons--both coming down from mother to
daughter, and father to son.

The fishing fleet of Volendam sails as far as the North Sea, but it
is always in Volendam by Saturday morning. Hence if you would see
the Volendam fishermen in their greatest strength the time to visit
the little town is at the end of the week or on Sunday.

The day for Purmerend is Tuesday, because then the market is held,
in the castle plein, among mediaeval surroundings. To this market the
neighbourhood seems to send its whole population, by road and water,
in gay cart and comfortable wherry. According to my unfailing informant
in these regions, the Purmerend stadhuis, in order "to aggrandise the
cheese market," was in 1633 "set back a few meters by screwing-force".

The excursion to Marken and the excursion to Edam and its neighbourhood
take each a day; but between Amsterdam and Zaandam, just off the great
North Canal, steamers ply continually, and one may be there in half
an hour. The journey must be made,