The canal is really much more the high road of the country than the road itself.

The barge is the Pickford van of Holland.

Here we see some of the secret of the Dutch deliberateness.

A country which must wait for its goods until a barge brings them has every opportunity of acquiring philosophic phlegm.
After a while one gets accustomed to the ever-present canal and the odd spectacle (to us) of masts in the streets and sails in the fields.

All the Dutch towns are amphibious, but some are more watery than others.
The Dutch do not use their wealth of water as we should.