The first circumstance that afforded novelty was, that amidst all the bustle I seldom met with any carriages on wheels to augment the noise of the scene. Upon enquiry I found, that, by the police laws of Amsterdam, wheel-carriages are limited to a certain number, which is very inconsiderable compared with the size of the city, from an apprehension that an uncontrouled use of them might hazard the foundation of the houses, most of which are built upon piles; for nearly the whole of the ground on which this vast city stands was formerly a morass. A carriage, called by the Dutch a sley, and by the French a traineau, or, on account of its solemnity, un pot de chambre, is used in their room; it is the body of a coach fastened by ropes on a sledge, and drawn by one horse; the driver walks by the side of it, which he holds with one hand to prevent its falling over, and with the other the reins: nothing can be more melancholy than this machine, which holds four persons, moves at the rate of about three miles an hour, and seems more like the equipage of an hospital, than a vehicle in which the observer would expect to find a merry face; yet in this manner do the Dutch frequently pay visits and take the air. It was in allusion to the forest foundation of this wonderful place, that Erasmus sportively observed, when he first visited it, that he had reached a city, the inhabitants of which, like crows, lived upon the tops of trees; and another wit compared Amsterdam to Venice, on account of both having wooden legs.