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274 The New Church which was built in the 15th century and restored after the fire of 1645 is one of the finest in Holland. The Old Church was built about 1300 A.D.

The finest sight in Amsterdam, however, is the famous Ryks Museum, just completed and containing some paintings which have a world-wide celebrity. Foremost among them is Rembrandt's Night-watch which is allowed the place of honor in the Museum. It is Rembrandt's largest and most celebrated work, and represents a company of Arquebusiers emerging from their guild house on their nightly round. To the left of this room is a large room containing works of Flemish, German, French, Italian and Spanish masters. I noticed in this room some fine pictures of Guido Reni and Caravaggio, and also the celebrated painting of Rubens representing the old prisoner who was condemned to death by starvation, but whose life was saved by his daughter giving him her breast when she came to visit him.

Holland is a country of canals, and Amsterdam is the centre of an extensive system of canals on all sides. The two most important are the North Holland Canal, 130 ft. broad and constructed in 1819 to 1825, and the North Sea Canal from 200 to 330 ft. wide and completed only in 1876. Both these canals were constructed to connect Amsterdam with the German Ocean. The North Holland Canal runs from Amsterdam northwards and meets the German Ocean at Helder. But this magnificent work,