SCHEVENINGEN, Holland.—This famous and popular summer resort is annually visited by thousands of people. The sand is firm and smooth, and the place possesses a great advantage over other watering-places on the North Sea, having The Hague and woods in close proximity, the latter affording pleasant and shady walks. What appear like wooden posts driven in the sand in the above picture, are wicker-basket chairs, with roofs to keep off the sun. Scores of canvas tents line the shore, and thousands of people lie on the beach from early morning until late at night.
AMSTERDAM, Holland.—This is the largest and most important city in Holland, and constitutionally its capital. It stands on a soft, wet ground, under which, at a depth of fifty feet, is a bed of sand. Into this sand piles are driven, on which buildings are reared, a fact which gave rise to the jest of Erasmus of Rotterdam, that he knew a city whose inhabitants dwelt on tops of trees like rooks. The city is surrounded by grassy meadows. Amsterdam ranks much higher as a trading than as a manufacturing town. The photograph represents St. Antoine Street.
WIND-MILL, Holland.—Millions wonder that a country so situated as Holland can exist; and the stranger is almost unable to decide whether land or water predominates. Those broken and compressed coasts, those deep bays and great rivers, the lakes and canals crossing each other, all combine to give the idea of a country that may at any time disintegrate and disappear. In the thirteenth century the sea broke the dykes in northern Holland and formed the Zuyder Zee, destroying many villages and causing the death of eighty thousand people. To drain the lakes, and save the country from destructive inundations, the Hollanders press the air into their service, which is represented by the above wind-mill.
CHRISTIANSAND, Norway.—Christiansand is the largest town on the south coast of the Scandinavian peninsula, and the residence of one of the five Norwegian Bishops. It is beautifully situated at the mouth of the Otteraa, on the Christiansand Fjord. The town is named after Christian IV., by whom it was founded in 1641, and is regularly laid out with streets intersecting at right angles. It possesses an excellent harbor, at which all the coasting steamers of that country, and those from England, Germany and Denmark, arrive regularly.
BERGEN, Norway.—Bergen is one of the oldest and most picturesque cities in Norway. The general aspect of the town is modern, though traces of its antiquity are not wanting. The older part adjoins the spacious harbor called Vaagen, and spreads over the rocky heights at the base of the Florfjeld and over the peninsula of Mordanes. Fish has always been the staple commodity of the city, and it is still the greatest fish market in Norway. The above picture represents the harbor, with vegetable-peddlers and their portable stalls in the foreground.
NIERDFJORD, GUDVNAGEN, Norway.—One of the grandest and most picturesque of the many Fjords on the broken coast of Norway, is represented here. Enormous waterfalls, formed by the melting snows and ice, are seen along the steep precipices of the high mountains on every side. The mountains on both sides of this inland sea, rise to the height of several thousand feet. The steamer in the foreground is one of the many that make weekly trips between Christiansand and Hammerfest, the latter being the most northern town in the world. During the summer season, these steamers are crowded with tourists to their utmost capacity. This fact evinces the grandeur of the place, and the interest it must afford to travellers.
NORTH CAPE, Norway.—This cape (71° 10' N. Lat.), consisting of a dark gray slate-rock, furrowed with deep clefts, rising abruptly from the sea, is usually considered the most northern point of Europe; its height is about nine hundred and seventy feet. The northern sun, creeping at midnight (the time this photograph was taken) along the horizon, and the immeasurable ocean in apparent contact with the skies, form the grandest outlines and the most sublime pictures to the astonished beholder. Here, as in a dream, the many cares and anxieties of restless mortals seem to culminate.
MOSCOW, Russia.—Moscow, which was at one time the capital of all Russia and home of the Czar, was founded nearly seven hundred and fifty years ago. The principal event in its history is the burning of it in 1812, for the purpose of dislodging the French from their winter quarters during the French and Russian war. The city is built with strange irregularities, having streets and numerous paltry lanes opening all at once into magnificent squares. It has a great number of churches and monasteries, and a university with 1000 students. This photograph represents the principal portion of the city and the river Moskva, on whose bank it is situated, with the Kremlin in the distance, piercing the air with its lofty spires.
WINTER PALACE, St. Petersburg, Russia.—This magnificent palace is fronted with a large number of Corinthian columns, which give it a formidable yet beautiful appearance. On the top, along the front and sides, it is adorned by a number of statues representing various emblems and figures in Russian history. The most beautiful apartment of the edifice is the Salle Blanche, or white saloon, where the court fêtes are held. The room contains the crown jewels of Russia, and is decorated in pure white and gold. The effect is most dazzling.
THE CATHEDRAL, Cologne, Germany.—This building justly excites the admiration of every beholder, and is probably the most magnificent Gothic edifice in the world. It stands on a slight eminence, sixty feet above the Rhine. As early as the ninth century, an Episcopal church occupied the site, but the inhabitants regarded it to be unworthy, as compared with the prosperity of the city, and consequently started a new one. The foundation-stone of the present structure was laid on August 14, 1248. On the 15th of October, 1880, the completion of the Cathedral was celebrated in the presence of William I.