8 DELFT.

country is butter and cheese, which used to form the chief

sources of its: wealth; but of late, the prices at which those

articles have been sold, have been so low, that instead of a profit, every sale has been attended with loss to the producer.

The vast numbers of windmills around would indicate the grinding of much more corn than the district affords, or perhaps than the consumption of the inhabitants would require; but[ soon learnt, that the far greater part of them were. destined solely for the purpose of draining the land in the manner practised by us in some parts of Lincoln- shire” and in the Isle of Ely. They were, however, uniformly at rest; and drought, rather than inundation, forms at present the principal subject of complaint. The size and power of these mills is much greater than any that it has been found necessary to erect in England.

The dryness of this, and the preceding summer, added to the unusual mildness of the last winter, has produced in many parts of Holland, a visitation of a most unprecedented nature. The field mice. have s multiplied to such an im- moderate degree as to have absolutely destroyed, at least for à season, some of the most fertile meadows. These animals by millions have burrowed in the ground, and have eaten the roots of the grass. Many patches of considerable extent were pointed out to me on the richest pastures that were totally bare, not even the slightest trace of vegetation being visible; this I was assured was effected by these minute vermin, and I had sufficient conviction of their abundance by the thousands I saw on the banks of the canals as 1 passed the dykes. I was informed by persons, on whose veracity I saw reason to rely, that many of the farmers on some of the

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