1885.] SAND-PLAINS OF BELGWM. 197 



HAND-PLAINS OF BELGIUM AND SAND-DUNES OF 

 HOLLAND, AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 



BY THE REV. J. C. BHOWX, LL.D. 



I. — Sand-Plains of Belgium. 



" A '"'PECTATOE placed on the famous bell-tower of the Cathedral 

 -lJL of Antwerp," says Baude, in an article in the Ecvue dcs Deux 

 Mondes, Jan. 1859, one of an interesting series of articles entitled 

 " Las Cotes de la Manche," " saw not long since — on the opposite 

 side of the Schelde — only a vast desert plain ; now he sees a forest, 

 the limits of which are confounded with the horizon. Let him 

 enter within its shade. The supposed forest is but a system of 

 regular rows of trees, the oldest of which is not yet forty years of 

 age ! These plantations have ameliorated the climate — which had 

 doomed to sterility the soil — where they are planted. While the 

 tempest is violently agitating their tops, the air a little below is 

 still, and sands far more barren than the plateau of La Hague have 

 been transformed under their protection into fertile fields." And as 

 it was there, so I found it throughout an extensive district beyond. 

 Well may it be said : " The industry of the Flemings has in 

 two hundred years converted a tract of land, once a sandy and 

 barren heath, into a beautiful garden.". Thus have sand-plains 

 been brought under culture in Belgium, and the present century 

 has seen many sand -plains, sand -drifts, and sand-dunes brought 

 under cultivation elsewhere. 



In a volume entitled Pine Plantations on the Sand-Wastes of 

 France, details are given of appearances presented by landes or 

 heaths adjacent to the pine plantations in Gascony ; of legislation, 

 and information in regard to the planting of these landes with trees ; 

 of literature relative to the arrest and cultivation of drift-sands in 

 Prance — to the exploitation of the pine plantations of Gascony — to 

 sylviculture on the landes of La Sologne — to inland sand-wastes, and 

 to sand-wastes on the coast of France — to the natural history and 

 general culture of the Scots fir in France — and to the natural 

 history and general culture of the maritime pine in France, and the 

 culture of the maritime pine on the landes of Gascony — and to the 

 diseases and injurious influences to which the maritime pine is 

 subject. And in a volume entitled Introduction to the Study of 

 Modern Forest Economy, are given details of remains of former 

 forests found in sand-plains, with illustrations of the effects of the 



