carry a mast and sail, although for the greater part of their journeys
they are towed by their owners, or rather by the familles, wife and
children, of the owner. Mynheer, the barge-owner, is usually to be seen
smoking his pipe and taking his ease near the tiller. Formerly it was
otherwise, for the towing was done by dogs, under the personal direction
of, and no doubt with some assistance from, the barge-owner himself, while
his wife and children remained on the poop of the boat. But five and
twenty years ago the authorities of Amsterdam issued a law prohibiting the
employment of dogs in the work of towing, and gradually this law was
generally adopted and enforced throughout the country. When dogs were
emancipated from their servitude on the canal-bank the family had to take
their places, and by degrees the ease-loving head of the family has grown
content to look on and think towing a labour reflecting on his dignity.
There is nothing unusual in the sight of a barge being towed by an old
woman, her daughter or daughter-in-law, and several children. As they
strain at the rope the work seems extremely hard, but the people
themselves appear unconscious of any hardship or inequality in the
distribution of labour.

The barge is in the first place a conveyance. The whole of the front part
of the boat represents the hold in which the cargo is placed. This is
generally represented by cheese or vegetables, timber, peat, and stones,
the last-named being a return-cargo for the repairing of dykes and the
construction of quays. But in the second place it is a house or place of
residence, and the stern of the boat is given up for that purpose. The
living room is the raised deck or poop, on which is not only the tiller,
but the cooking-stove. The sleeping-room forms the one covered-in
apartment. It is easily divisible into two by a temporary or removable
partition, and it always possesses the two little windows, one on each
side of the tiller, which give it so great a resemblance to a doll's