10 ROTTERDAM.

There are great numbers of mills in every direction, worked by wind. In a country wheré there is no fall of water, and where fuel is too dear to allow of the advantageous use of steam-engines, this is very natural; and hence the Dutch have attained a degree of excellence as mill-wrights far beyond any other people, so that almost every operation where a great power is necessary is performed by the aid of wind. Very powerful saw-mills were at work by the side of the road, and the mast-makers were executing their labour with engines, whose motion was communicated from the wind.

After leaving to the right, the town of Scheidam, surrounded with windmills, and enveloped in the everlasting smoke which its distilleries of gin send forth,[I passed through Overschie, a large town, in which are considerable manufactories of iron ware, the soot of whose fabrication, was pretty visible on the countenances of many of the inhabitants.

The entrance to Rotterdam from Delft is very impressive; it is through a long street, or rather a row of lofty houses, with a canal on one side, between which and the houses is an avenue of the highest trees I had yet seen in Holland, with the lamps suspended in the centre. The streets of Rotterdam are generally narrow, the houses large and lofty, the bustle owing to the market-day was considerable; there were vessels in the canals of most of the streets, near the warehouses; and except that it is better paved, it much resembles Hamburg, Lubeck, and the other commercial cities of the north of Europe.

Few places are better situated for extensive commerce than the city of Rotterdam. Its front is towards the principal branch of the Meuse, whilst the river Rotte running through it, gives access to vessels up to the doors of the various