Adding to the world map and reading the new signs. — 1. The large map in Figure 129 gives you an idea of how mountains look from an airplane. Of course your world map is too small for mountains to be shown on it as they are shown in Figure 129, but signs can be added to it that will help to remind you of the things you saw as you crossed these mountains. In Figure 137 signs are added not only for the mountains that you saw in Switzerland, but for those in all the lands you have visited. Find on this map the sign for the Alps. For the mountains in Italy. For those in Greece. For those near the Barbary Coast. For those which you saw near Lake Victoria. Can you find in Figure 137 any signs for mountains that you did not see as you journeyed in theselands?

2. Your next journey is to be a river trip from Switzerland northward to the sea. From the map in Figure 137 find where the river on which Basle is ldcated reaches the sea. This river is called the Rhine River.

The trip on the Rhine River from Basic to the sea is more than five hundred miles.

3. The part of the Atlantic Ocean into which the Rhine empties is called the North Sea. The Rhine flows into the North Sea through several mouths. What does this make you think the Rhine has built? (P. 39.)

4. Will your trip on the Rhine from Basic to the sea be upstream or downstream?

5. In Figures 138, 139, 140, and 141 there are views that you can see along the Rhine before you come to the delta lands where the Dutch live. The scenery along the Rhine is very different in different parts of its valley. After reading the next three paragraphs, tell in which part of the valley you think each picture was taken.

The upper Rhine. — For more than a hundred miles north of Basle the Rhine River marks the boundary between France and Germany. The lands that stretch away from the right bank of the river are in Germany. Those that lie along the left bank are in France. Back of the low land on both sides you can see mountains in the distance. Many of the towns on . this wide,. almost level valley bottom stand two or three miles from the river banks. Along the river are green meadows and forests. Stretching from these meadows and forests past the towns to the lower mountain slopes are orchards, and fields .óf tobacco, hops, and corn. For another hundred miles the river flows ifl this wide valley, but all the land you see on both sides belongs to Germany. Indeed, all• the remainder of the journey to the delta is in Germany.

The middle Rhine. - A little more than two hundred miles from Basle the river valley gets narrower and deeper, and for the next hundred miles mountains are very near its banks. For mile after mile the steep mountain sides along the river are almost covered with vineyards, orchards, or gardens, in which you can see people here and there at work. In other places you see also slopes of bare rock and other slopes on which there are forests. The towns along this part of the river are very close to the river banks. There is so little room on the lower land between the mountains and the river that some of the towns are long and narrow. Here and there, perched high above the river, are old castles. They were built there for safety and in order to let the people living in them see far up and down the valley. Some of these castles were built a thousand years or more ago.

The lower Rhine above the delta. — The remainder of the journey to the delta is through low land. In this lower part of the river you pass a number of large cities and many small towns built on the river banks. At the wharves of these cities you see many barges and freight boats being loaded or unloaded. This part of the Rhine Valley is not so beautiful as the other two parts you have seen, but it is busier than either. - The pictures. — Do you think any of the pictures in Figures 138, 140, and 141 were taken along the upper Rhine? Why? Do you think any of them were taken along the middle Rhine? Why? Do you think any of them were taken along the lower Rhine above the delta? Why? .

Check your answers by finding the titles of these pictures in the List of Illustrations.

The delta lands. — About four hundred miles from Basic, you reach the place where the Rhine divides into two streams. Most boats going downstream turn into the larger or left branch. It is called the Waal. For a few miles you can see sand hills and many trees to the left of the Waal. To the right are low, green meadows. The delta land between these two branches of the Rhine is so low that strong earth walls, called dikes, have been built along the rivers to keep the lowland from being flooded when the water in the rivers is high. After you pass the sand bills, the land on both sides of the Waal is low. As you travel on through mile after mile of low, flat lands, you see very plainly why the Dutch people speak of their country as the Netherlands, for "nether" in their language means "low." Some of this delta land is even lower than the sea, and if sand hills and dikes along the coast did not keep the water out of this very low part, much of the country would be shallow sea instead of land. Your boat at last brings you to the great dty of Rotterdam, only a few miles from the sea. Like Switzerland, the Netherlands is a very tiny part of the map in Figure 137. You cannot tell from this map where the borders of the country are, but you can find, near a mouth of the Rhine, the dot which stands for Rotterdam. As you approach the wharf at which your boat stops, you can see the masts and smokestacks of so many ships that Rotterdam seems to be as much a city of boats as a city of buildings.

A ship owner’s son. — Cornelius is a Dutch boy who lives in the dty of Rotterdam. He does not wear wooden shoes, wide full trousers, a short coat, and a tight little cap as many other Dutch boys do. He and his playmates in Rotterdain wear dothes much like those which American boys wear. His father is one of a company of men who own some great ocean ships that sail between the Netherlands and many other parts of the world. Cornelius has learned much about the ships he sees at Rotterdam. If you went with him to visit the wharves, and could understand his language, he could teach you how to tell his father’s ships from other ocean ships. He could show you the differences between the Rhine River barges and the canal barges. He would know where most of thç boats came from and where they were going. He could name many things that he has seen men unload from the boats. As you went with him along the waterfront you would find that the city needs many miles of wharves, and much space near them in which ships can wait to be, loaded or unloaded. In order to make room for all the ships that come and go, big ponds or basins have been dug and have been connected with the river, so that ships can sail into them and unload their cargoes onto barges or onto the wharves around the edges of the basins. These basins are called harbors. One of them is called the Rhine Harbor. As Cornelius showed you many boats of all sizes, from great ocean liners to little barges tawed by a boy or a dog, you would see that boats help many Dutch people besides his father to make a living.

Cornelius never has gone with his father on a long ocean voyage, but he has made many journeys in his own country. Sometimes he rides his bicycle on these trips, but he likes better to go on river or canal boats. There are about as many canals in the Netherlands as there are roads, and the canal boats move so slowly that passengers on them have plenty of time to see things along the way. In traveling through his country Cornelius has learned that one thing which he always had thought of as a friend of the Dutch people is in some ways like an enemy instead. He wants to do work when he is, grown that will help to keep this thing from harming his country,, and he likes to read stories about men who have done this kind of work.

Five things to do. —The pictures and paragraphs on the following pages will help you to imagine you are taking some of these trips with Cornelius.

1. As you study these pages, try to find what it is that is both like an enemy and like a friend of the Netherlands.

2. Find how it has been like an enemy.

3. Find how it has been like a friend.

4. Fmd out what you think Cornelius wants to be when he is grown.

5. Make a list of things that you find Dutch people doing to make a living.

Pastures of the Netherlands. — At one place in your journey you could see the view shown in Figure 142. How many windmills can you count there? What kinds of animals do you see in the pastures? None of the cattle are red. They are all black and white. Dutch farmers seem to like black and white cows better than any other kind. The farmhouses you see near some of the windmills are built of red brick. Their redtiled roofs are steep. Does this make you think that much or little rain falls here? Why? Here and there are hayricks, higher even than the houses or the barns. Suppose you were so near one of the farmhouses that you could see the people at work. The farmer’s wife and daughter might be putting rows of milk crocks in the sun to dry, and the farmer loading hay onto a wagon. What are the farm people you see in Figure 143 doing? At some places in the ditches shown in Figure 142 water lilies are growing, and along the edges forget-me-nots are blooming. In other near-by ditches not shown in the picture you could see swans swimming. Do you not think these pastures are pretty?

The story of these pastures. — This land was once under water most of the time. It was the bottom of a shallow lake. The people who first built homes here hundreds and hundreds of years ago had to make on the bed of the lake low mounds of earth on which to erect their houses. They called these low mounds "polls." Near their houses they then changed parts of the bed of the lake into fields in the foliowing way. They built dikes of clay around the parts they intended to make into fields, and pumped the water out of the places surrounded by the dikes. They called these drained fields "polders" because they were near the "polls" on which their houses were built. They found that the winds were strong and steady enough to keep windmills working much of the time, and so they built windmills to help them with the pumping.

Do you not wonder, then, why you see ditches instead of dikes along the edges of the fields or polders in Figure 142? Men no longer have to put dikes around each field. They now can build big dikes, and can pump hundreds of acres dry at one time. Ditches are cut between the fields so that water from the fields can run into them. Machines which are run by windmills or by steam engines lift or pump the water from the ditches into canals between the dikes. The surface of the water in the canals is higher than the fields. If a dike should break, water from the canal would flood the near-by polders. The larger canals are good highways for boats. The men, then, who found out how to drain the water from these polders and how to keep it shut up between dikes really gave to the Netherlands good pastures and good highways for boats.

Barges and their loads. — Mong the canals you pass many barges whose loads you can see. Some carry loads like those in Figure 144. What are these barges carrying? Others are loaded with cheeses like those in the barge in Figure 145. Some cheeses are light yellow, some dark yellow, and others red. In other barges you may see cheeses that are shaped like balls. Many of the cheeses have been made on the farms and are being taken to a city market to be sold. Some farmers, instead of making cheese, sell their milk to factories in which cheese is made. There is a very good reason why these farmers raise so much hay, keep so many cows, and have so much milk to use in making butter and cheese. On most of the farms, grass grows very well. It can stand more rain than most other crops.

At the market place the cheeses will be spread out so that people who want to buy can look at them carefully. Some men buy thousands of cheeses to sell in other lands. They usually store them in great warehouses till they are sold. The cheeses on the barge in Figure 145, after being unloaded, will be stored in a warehouse.

From time to time you pass barges which people use not only for carrying freight, but also for homes. There are brightly painted cabins on these barges, and at the cabin windows are white curtains and pots of flowers. Sometimes men and sometimes women walk along the dike and pull these house barges througltjhe water. On the decks of some of them there are flowers and piles of potatoes and other vegetables, that are being taken to the city market.

Several barges you pass are heaped with big bricks of dark brown peat which have been cut from a peat polder. A layer of partly decayed plants has been found at the bottom of sornr of the lakes drained to make polders. This is called peat. If water had not stood there for many years this peat would not have been formed. The dried bricks of peat you see on the barges are good fuel. The earth which was underneath the layer of peat taken from many of the polders makes good soil for growing potatoes and other vegetables. Probably the potatoes on the house barges grew in a polder from which the peat had been cut. In some polders, tulips and other flowers are grown instead of vegetables. The peat, the hay, the cheese, the vegetables, and the flowers on these barges are all products of the polders. So long, as water covered these lands peat was the only one of these products that could be had from them.

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