Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/239

Rh putrified fish, and the refuse of the vegetable markets. Dead dogs and cats float about without number, and in one canal I saw a horse in a horrid state of corruption. The water of the canals is generally a yard below the pavement of the street, and about eight or nine feet deep, with perhaps a yard of soft mud at the bottom, so that when an animal or a man tumbles in, unless assistance is at hand, his destiny is singularly fortunate if he escapes drowning. The brink of very few of the canals is guarded with rails or a chain, but there are a sufficient number of lamps, at convenient distances, to show the proximity of the canals in the darkest nights; and as strangers are cautious how they walk, from a proper sense of danger, and the inhabitants of the town are well acquainted with the situation of the canals, few accidents occur.

The streets of Amsterdam, and indeed of all Holland, have no path for the exclusive accommodation of foot passengers, as in England. Flag-stones, the best kind of pavement for this purpose, are not to be expected