Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1878 - Inland voyage

On the Willcbroek Canal. 1 1
to eye and ear ; but down between the banks,
the wind reached us only in faint and desultory-
pufts. There was hardly enough to steer by.
Progress was intermittent and unsatisfactor}'\
A jocular person, of marine antecedents, hailed
us from the tow-path with a " Cest vite, mais cest
lungr
The canal was busy enough. Every now and
then w^e met or overtook a long string of boats,
with great green tillers ; high sterns with a
windov/ on either side of the rudder, and per-
haps a jug or a flower-pot in one of the win-
dows ; a dingy following behind ; a woman
busied about the day's dinner, and a handful of
children. These barges were all tied one behind
the other with tow ropes, to the number of
twenty-five or thirty ; and the line was headed
and kept in motion by a steamer of strange
construction. It had neither paddle-wheel nor
screw ; but by some gear not rightly compre-