Dikes and Ditches by Oliver Optic

After dinner the party, in charge of a couple of the city officials, who had given them a welcome, went to the Palace, the noblest building in Amsterdam. It rests upon nearly fourteen thousand piles, driven seventy feet through the mud to "hard pan. " During the reign of King Louis, it was his residence, and the other sovereigns of Holland used it when they visited the city. Its remarkable feature is an imposing hall, one hundred and twenty feet long, fifty-seven feet wide, and one hundred feet high. The interior is lined with Italian marble, and adorned with works of art.

"Young gentlemen," said Mr. Mapps, taking position in this great hall, "Amsterdam contains a population of two hundred and sixty-eight thousand. In shape, it forms rather more than the plane of a half circle, the circumference being composed of the walls of the city, outside of which is an immense canal. Inside of the walls there are four principal canals, extending nearly around the city. Take the transverse section of the trunk of a chestnut tree, divide it, with the grain of the wood, into two equal parts, and the top of one of them will give you the plane of the half circle. The layers of the log, formed by each year's growth, would indicate the canals and the intervening spaces covered with buildings. The heart of the city, however, is irregular.