n it reaches Holland it is not
only no longer so confined, but it finds its flow obstructed by the ice
which there still remains solid, and so it gets jammed and forms dams,
and that makes the water rise very fast. At one time when such a dam was
formed, the water rose seven feet in an hour. At such times the pressure
becomes so prodigious that the dikes along the bank of the river are
burst, and water, sand, gravel, and ice, all pour over together upon
the surrounding country, and overwhelm and destroy every thing that
comes in its way.

"Some of the inundations caused in Holland by these floods and freshets
have been terrible. In ancient times they were worse than they are now;
because now the dikes are stronger, and are better guarded. At one
inundation that occurred about sixty years ago, eighty thousand persons
were drowned. At another, three hundred years earlier, one hundred
thousand perished. Think what awful floods there must have been.

"But I cannot write any more in this letter. I have taken up so much
space and time in telling you about the inundations and freshets, that I
have not time to describe a great many other things which I have seen,
that are quite as curious and remarkable as they. But when I get home I
can tell you all about them, in the winter evenings, and read to you
about them from my journal.

"Your affectionate brother,
"GEORGE."

ROLLO'S LETTER.

"LEYDEN, Tuesday, September 27.

"MY DEAR MOTHER:

"Uncle George and I are having a very fine time indeed in travelling
about Holland; it is such a funny country, on account of their being so
many canals. The water is all smooth and still in all the canals,
(except when the wind blows,) and so there must be excellent skating
every where in the winter.

"I wish it was winter here now, for one day, so that uncle George and I
could have some Dutch skating.

"There must be good skating every where here in the winter, for there is
water every where, and it is all good water for skating. In the fields,
instead of brooks running in crooked ways and tumbling over rocks, there
are only long and narrow channels of smooth water, just about wide
enough to skate upon, and reaching as far as you can see.

"The people here speak Dutch, and they cannot understand me, and I
cannot understand them. And that is not th