TRANSPORTATION AND ('OMMUNICATIONS. The largest routes of trade by water or rail eon verge on 'Rotterdam, ..1ms1erdam, and Flushing. Great ship canals have given their to Rotterdam 1315.50; inhabitants in 1900) and Amsterdam (510.900 ) . Rotterdam, near the mouth of 1,he Mitre. u•as threatened with being cut oil' from the sea by accumulations of sand in the river; a now waterway was therefore dug across the Dook of !Tolland through the dunes to the north of the Meuse, by which ships of the heaviest tonnage now reach the town. Fully three-fourths of the sea trade of the Netherlands pertains to Ilotterdant, steamers plying between that city and all the largest ports of Western and Northern Europe and to the East Indies and full ed States. The traffic by sailing ships with the colonies and other distant lands is also very im portant. Amsterdam is also connected by regu lar lines of steamers with many ports of Europe, .1meriea. and Asia. The two ports command about nine-tenths of the total sea trade; Flush ing, Aliddelburg, and Ilarlingen also have some importance. The Dutch merchant marine being small (213 steamers and 423 sailing vessels in 1000), a little more than one-half of the sea trade is carried under the British flag. Two ship canals connect .1msterdam with the sea. The older is the North Holland Canal. extending from Amsterdam to Alkmaar and Helder. .52 miles long. completed in 1825. By means of this canal the dangerous passage of the %nyder Zee was avoided. In recent years, however, the impor tance of the canal declined, as it is not wide enough for the more modern large ships. The
North Sea Canal was therefore built between Amsterdam and the North Sea, 10 miles in length and fully meeting the requirements of modern trade. These are the great ship canals of the Netherlands, but the whole country is a land of canals. All the towns and even villages are connected with one another by these waterways. The larger canals are titer 60 feel broad. 0 9 feet deep, and sometimes they lie higher than the fields through which they pass. The domestie trallie of the country is carried on the canals. There is little voasting trade,because commodities are carried from one port to another on the eanabs. The total extent of the canals is nearly 201)0 miles, and the length of navigable waters outside of the canals is about 31)1(1) The railroads are of more importance for international than for internal commerce. They carry most of the that England sends into Central Europe. FInshing, on the Scheldt. and Hook of holland, near Rotterdam, are ports on the main rail routes between England and Germany. In 1900 the railroads had a length of 1s30 mill—. of which the State owned about one-half and private eompanies the remainder. flood wagon roods in all pails of the country, all paved with brick (klinkers), supplement the other excellent means of communication. Their total length is about 3000 miles.