THE FORESTS OF BELGIUM 



By Charles Harris Whitaker 



THE traveler, crossing from Dover 

 ml. or leaving the Chan- 

 nel to wend his way slowly up 

 the Scheldt to Antwerp, orcross- 

 i'rom Harwich to the Hook of 

 land, would scarcely picture the low- 

 lyinj oast of Belgium and Holland 



aving once been girt with a thick 

 this "nether land, hollow 

 -whence we no doubt derive 

 h of the words Netherlands and 

 Hi -Hand- -was at one time only saved 

 i the further relentless encroaeh- 

 ments of the sea by the tangled woods 

 which grew about its seaward limits. 

 . offered a barrier against which the 

 sea beat in vain. The impenetrable net- 

 work of roots and branches only aided 

 in heaping up the dunes into those bul- 

 warks which the skill of man was to 

 transform later into dikes, and by their 

 aid. turn the almost impenetrable morass 

 into a land of fertility and abundance. 



All of the territory which we once 



knew as the Netherlands, and which 



under the name of the Low Countries 



played so important a part in Europe's 



wars of conquest and lust for 



practically surrounded by 



On the south, the hills and 



valleys of the Ardennes, densely wooded, 



ring an almost impenetrable obstacle 



to in they have today played 



si i ini] )i irtant a part in the war by barring 



the direct invasion of France by 



It is perhaps true that 



would have been spared many 



of the horrors which have fallen to her 



lot had the forest of the Ardennes not 



ni mi General Staff to 



the occupation of almost 



B ium, although we 



she future the revelation 



of man i is which are still 



orld at large. On the 



r Badahuenna 



ly claim to historic value 



resounded 



the Druidical sacri- 



side there 



eat Hercynian 



forest. Legend has it that nine days 

 were required to traverse the labyrinth 

 of its wild ways from north to south, 

 while its eastern extent was said to be 

 so great that no German had ever been 

 able to find its beginning, although one, 

 most adventurous and courageous, had 

 pluckily held to a journey of no less 

 than sixty days. 



Of these forests comparatively little 

 remains. The Wood, just outside the 

 Hague; the groves of Harlem, the for- 

 ests of Soignes and Ardennes are all 

 that have been left. From Amsterdam on 

 the north to the banks of the Meuse, 

 and from the seacoast to the Rhine, 

 one seldom gets a view of anything 

 which would even suggest that a forest 

 had ever existed in this highly cultivated 

 land. Trees are everywhere, for the 

 Belgians knew well how to shade their 

 roads and protect their streams. The 

 long rows of willows and poplars, 

 stretching away in every direction, are 

 familiar sights, but there is no sugges- 

 tion of the forest until one reaches 

 Brussels or until one has journeyed 

 south and west and come up with the 

 border of the Ardennes. Just above 

 Dinant on the Meuse, already a victim 

 to the devastation which has overtaken 

 this dauntless nation, the Ardennes be- 

 gin, sweeping in a southerly and south- 

 easterly direction clear down to the con- 

 fines of the Duchy of Luxembourg and 

 the frontiers of France. 



The favorite holiday ground of thou- 

 sands of Englishmen, the Ardennes are 

 scarcely known to Americans. Within 

 the boundaries of this delightful section 

 there are to be found some of the finest 

 woods in all Europe. Some of them seem 

 to have come down from the days of 



Caesar, but best of all, one finds the 



t pleas ire in knowing that, thanks 



to the compulsory replanting laws of 



lelgium, they are as nearly certain of 

 preservation as it is possible to make 

 them. 



The Arduenna Silva was the most 

 extensive forest within the Gallic do- 





