Things Seen in Holland
deliberate cultivation of a nursery for enteric must be fraught with considerable danger, to be told by the grimly humorous Dutchwoman that the water is so foul that it is fatal to animal life, and that no germs, whether bacteria or microbes, can possibly thrive therein. “Besides,” to quote one buxom dame, “if our water contained all these little beasts, the ducks would eat them!” It may be left to the followers of Pasteur to say whether the “little beasts” are or are not found in ducks; but it is only fair to add that Dutch hotel-keepers are careful to inform you that these canal ducks, whose “farms” line the sides of many a canal and sloot (ditch separating polders), are never served—nay, not even their eggs—at table d'hôte. The eggs are shipped to England, so they say, and are bought by bakers and pastry-cooks. But what becomes of the skinny-
20
