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National Geographic : 1925 Jul
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REDISCOVERING THE RHINE Photograph by Melville Chater DECK COOKING ON THE "RIJN-SCHELDE" From Antwerp to Strasbourg the skipper of the barge on which the author made his trip was also the cook, as madame, after 12 years of uninterrupted voyaging, wished a vacation from scenery and castles (see text, page I). on the Rijn-Schelde's cargo, then retired, meanwhile scratching their heads over the mystery of two Americans who appar ently enjoyed life among oil barrels on a barge. The Hansweert Canal, though entirely in Dutch territory, is Belgium's short cut to Rotterdam and the Rhine. Its five miles of length constitute a busy scene of maritime vessels and 2,ooo-ton barges gliding between flat shores. High, in deed, must be the dikes and powerful the locks of this canal, which cuts across the little island of South Beveland and con nects what are practically two arms of the sea. Another pair of huge locks opened to let us pass out into the lagoonlike East ern Scheldt. Here the Rijn-Schelde sped up to 15 miles an hour, as we coasted among the islands of Tholen, Schouwen, and Beyerland, low and hazy, their files of spectral trees flat against the horizon a seascape-landscape of gentle grays. Such is the Dutch province of Zeeland, and never was a geographical name more apt. "Sea-land" consists of seven islands which, as their vast embankments bear witness, have literally been salvaged from the sea. Small wonder that these so called "drowned lands," which have suf fered two great inundations, took as their heraldic device a swimming lion; while as a motto they might well adopt the Dutch proverb, "God made the sea; we made the shore !" Meanwhile the skipper lighted a fire in the deck stove and boiled some coffee, which grew tepid before he served it. The rest of our first barge breakfast was produced from his hip pocket. At first we took the thing to be a policeman's night-stick. It turned out to be three feet of smoked sausage, but doubtless it
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