BIRD S-HYH VIEWS 13

much too big for them, perched upon wooden legs to keep
them from sinking in the marsh; and horses wearing
wide, stool-like shoes for the same reason. Or they might
watch the wagons bumping along with drivers sitting out-
side, kicking the funny little crooked pole; or horses
yoked three abreast, dragging obstinate loads; or women
and boys harnessed to long towing-ropes, meekly drawing
their loads of market-stuff up and down the canal.
Then there are the boats, large and small, of every pos-
sible Dutch style; wonderful ships made to breast the
rough seas of the coast; fishing-smacks (smakschepen),
heavy with fresh catches; the round-sterned craft by the
cities, with their gilded prows and gaily painted sides;
trekschuiten, or water-omnibuses, plying up and down the
canals for the conveyance of passengers; brown-sailed
pakschuiten, or water-carts, for carrymg coal and mer-
chandise upon these same water-roads; barges loaded

     
 

    
   
 

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A WATER OMNIBUS.