HARBWJCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIF. 



153 



clear green water, in evident ignorance of their hotel 

 value. The winding Lesse strikes off on the left-hand 

 side almost at right angles, and we follow it, past the 

 brick pits which are worked in the clay derived 

 from the decomposition of the shales on the long- 

 weathered side of the hill. The roads are green and 

 narrow, and we have to flatten ourselves against the 

 rocks or foliage to let the quaintly-constructed 

 country carts pass by. Tall limestone cliffs wall in 

 the winding river and its varying margin of waving 

 green meadows. Nowhere have we found any but 

 English flowers in the latter, with the exception of 

 the round-headed Rampion {Phytciuna orbiciilare), 

 which is very abundant and conspicuous by reason 

 of its indigo-coloured flower-heads. In the woods 

 on either hand Phytzuma spicahim and columbine 

 {Aquikgia vulgaris) abound. 



Our road led us to a ford, where we had to strip 

 and cross. Then on to the famous and commanding 

 Chateau de Walzin, and picturesque mill close by. 

 The miller might be the descendant of the famous 

 one which lived by the river Dee, so manly and in- 

 dependent is his bearing. He ferries us across the 

 river, just beneath the perpendicular crag on which 



Fig. 107. — Spirifer cuspida- 

 tus. Lower Carboniferous 

 formation. 



Fig. 108. — Terebratula 

 reniformis. 



the chateau stands, to the meadows on the other side, 

 after telling us there is no road. But we make one 

 for ourselves through the woods, until we gain the 

 uneven table-land above. Then we catch sight of the 

 wooded valley and its tributaries wandering through 

 a forest-clad country like an irregular ditch, and the 

 mind is satisfied with the ample proof that the entire 

 course of this valley also is one of denudation. 



Our uncertain wanderings lead us through wretched 

 villages, each of which has a midden close to the 

 door, whose odours are never allowed to rest by the 

 fowls which constantly turn it over in the vain attempt 

 to gain a living. \Ve pass through a clearing and 

 meet with a charcoal burner, who directs us on our 

 way to Houyet by taking off his coat and chalking 

 thereon a map of the route. After much ascending 

 and descending of densely wooded slopes, and through 

 green forest-paths, we at length strike the high road 

 to Givet, but proceed in the opposite direction. A 

 magnificent panorama of rolling scenery stretches 

 before us to the distant blue horizon, patches of 

 forests alternating with parti-coloured areas of arable 

 lands and pastures. The rocks hereabouts are com- 

 posed of soft shales, much jointed, and cleaved at 



every conceivable angle across the planes of stratifica- 

 tion. 



Reaching Houyet — another ammoniacal village of 

 larger pretensions to size than usual — we make our 

 way to a little cabaret which dignifies itself with the 

 title of '* Hotel de Lesse." We are tired and hungry, 

 and the kind-hearted hostess does her best to pro- 

 duce dish after dish to satisfy our clamorous appetites. 

 At length there is a pause, and we decide to stay at 

 the " Hotel " all night. There are some lovely walks 

 by the river side hereabout. Through the village and 

 close to the mill, there is a small quarry where the 

 flag-like shales are fossiliferous. But all the fossils 

 are contorted, through their having had to partake in 

 the movements which have produced the cleavage. 

 All the fossils are those of our English Carboniferous 

 limestone, including Prodiicta, Rhynconella, Spirifera, 

 Tcrcbratulti:, &c. Two or three miles beyond Houyet, 

 on the road to Rochefort, we -find abundance of 

 fossils in an uncontorted slate, the cleavage planes 

 and stratification planes happening there to coincide. 



After paying our bill (thirteen francs for dinner, 

 beds, and breakfast, for two men ! ) we started early 

 for another hot day's walk to Rochefort, through 

 many quaint and strikingly picturesque villages. 



Near Villaye-sur-Lesse, the croakings from an 

 adjacent pond called us aside, and there we beheld 

 hundreds of green frogs, mostly perched on the 

 leaves of Potamogeton, from which they could with 

 difficulty be distinguished. It struck me how pro- 

 tective the striped greenness of these frogs must be 

 under such circumstances. Near Villaye the rocks 

 were again fossiliferous, and I obtained some beau- 

 tiful Spirifera. 



Rochefort and its neighbourhood are famous for 

 their " grottes," — caverns in the limestone which have 

 been formed like those in Derbyshire. From thence 

 we went through Jemelles to Poix, and on through 

 the cleared forest to St. Hubert. Here forest tradi- 

 tions and associations are exceedingly thick. From 

 St. Hubert to La Roche is a walk of about twenty 

 miles, the greater part of which lies through the 

 loveliest forest scenery of the Ardennes. A good 

 many patches of the forest hereabouts contain wild 

 boars, fallow deer, and roebuck, but they are 

 strictly preserved. Wolves have quite disappeared. 

 The woods are chiefly of beech, and nothing could 

 be pleasanter than their cheerful golden green glades 

 on either hand, as seen through the forest paths. 

 The high road is kept in splendid condition, but it is 

 monotonously straight, and the forest seems cleaved 

 by it as with a knife. Charcoal burning goes on 

 with vigour in the winter, but just now they are 

 gathering the bark, and leaving the stripped saplings 

 to dry for more rapid transformation to charcoal. 



My companion has plunged into the forest to 

 commune with the charcoal-burners. As his stock of 

 French is not large, and theirs is patois, there would 

 be a difficulty ; but he ingeniously meets this by 



