THE BELGIAN CAMPINE. 607 
were no doubt very influential causes; and if we add the drift- 
ing of the sea-sand over the soil, we have at least a partial ex- 
planation of the decayed agriculture and diminished population 
of this great waste. When the dunes were once arrested, and 
the soil to the east of them was felt to be secure against inva- 
sion by them, experiments, in the way of agricultural improve- 
ment, by drainage and plantation, were commenced, and they 
have been attended with such signal success, that the complete 
recoyery of one of the dreariest and most extensive wastes in 
Europe may be considered as both a probable and a near 
event.” 
In the northern part of Belgium, and extending across the 
confines of Holland, is another very similar heath plain, called 
the Campine. This is a vast sand flat, interspersed with marshes 
and inland dunes, and, until recently, considered almost wholly 
incapable of cultivation. Enormous sums had been expended 
in reclaiming it by draining and other familiar agricultural pro- 
cesses, but without results at all proportional to the capital 
* LAVERGNE, Economie Rurale de la France, p. 300, estimates the area of 
the Landes of Gascony at 700,000 hectares, or about 1,700,000 acres. The 
same author states (p. 304), that when the Moors were driven from Spain by 
the blind cupidity and brutal intolerance of the age, they demanded permission 
to establish themselves in this desert; but political and religious prejudices 
prevented the granting of this liberty. At this period the Moors were a far 
more cultivated people than their Christian persecutors, and they had carried 
many arts, that of agriculture especially, to a higher pitch than any other 
European nation. But France was not wise enough to accept what Spain had 
cast out, and the Landes remained a waste for three centuries longer. 
For a brilliant account of the improvement of the Landes, see Edmond 
About, Le Progrés, chap. vii. 
The forest of Fontainebleau, which contains above 40,000 acres, is not a 
plain, but its soil is composed almost wholly of sand, interspersed with ledges 
ofrock. The sand forms not less than ninety-eight per cent. of the earth, and, 
as it is almost without water, it would be a drifting desert but for the artificial 
propagation of forest trees upon it. 
The Landes of Sologne and of Brenne are less known than those of Gas- 
cony, because they are not upon the old great lines of communication. They 
once composed a forest of 1,200,000 acres, but by clearing the woods have 
relapsed into their primitive condition of a barren sand waste. Active efforts 
are now in progress to reclaim them. 
