378 BELGIUM. 



the banks of the Vescire, is known as Hautes Fagncs. It forms a world of its own, 

 very different in its features from the remainder of Belgium, with its well-culti- 

 vated fields, numerous towns, and dense population. The hills between the 

 Moselle and Meuse are, as a rule, of melancholy aspect. Only copses of beech, 

 oak, and birch, forests of pines, heaths pierced now and then by the rocks, and 

 poor pasture-lands, where ferns and clumps of juniper alternate with grassy slopes 

 and boggv bottom-lands, meet the eye, except when we come now and then upon 

 some verdant valley artificially irrigated, or upon a mountain stream setting in 

 motion the wheels of mills. Within the last few years the physiognomy of the 

 country has been changed to some extent, for large tracts have been planted with 

 trees, and the Ardennes once more assume the aspect wliich they wore fifteen cen- 

 turies ao-o, when vast forests stretched uninterruptedly from the Oise to the Rhine. 



The veo-etable soil Avhich covers the hills in the more savage region of the 

 Ardennes is hardly an inch in depth, and resting upon solid rock, it is capable of 

 nourishino- only stunted trees and shrubs. Elsewhere an impermeable crust of dis- 

 integrated clav slate covers the rocks, and gives rise to marshes. Human habita- 

 tions are rare in these regions, and those which we occasionally meet with in the 

 midst of the heath or forest are most unpretending structures of brick or stone, 

 covered with slate or straw. The ej)ithet of " Paris in Ardenne," ironically 

 bestowed upon Bastogne, is expressive of the general poverty of the towns of the 

 countrj^ In their isolation, with nothing to excite the cupidity of invaders, 

 the inhabitants of the Ardennes adhered longer to their ancient customs than the 

 dwellers in the plains around, and still carried on the worship of their deity 

 Arduinna long after it had been given up by the latter. The last altars of this 

 deity were overthrown in the seventh century ; that is, about the time when 

 St. Hubert encountered the wonderful stag which carried a golden cross between 

 his antlers. The men of the plain, who formerly persuaded or compelled the 

 " Ardennais" to change their religion and customs, are now gradually transform- 

 ing the face of the country. Tracts of land, which would remain uncultivated in 

 nearly every other country, are covered by them with lime, and thus vivified ; 

 quarrying is extensively carried on ; and every rivulet is penned up, to be utilised 

 for setting in motion the machinery of numerous factories. 



A portion of the basins of the Semoy and Chiers, on the southern slope of the 

 Ardennes, though geologically a portion of Lorraine, has been assigned to Belgium. 

 This "Little Provence" is sheltered in the north by the range of the Fagnes, but 

 is of small extent. The northern slope of the Ardennes, on the other hand, 

 stretches from the frontiers of France to those of German3\ It is an uneven 

 plateau, intersected by deep valleys, with forests growing upon its slate rocks, fields 

 covering the limestone slopes, and meadows in the humid bottom-lands. This 

 region is known under different appellations. The Fagnes extend from the Sambre 

 to the Meuse ; Condroz, named after the Gallic tribe of the Condrusi, reaches 

 from the Meuse to the Ourthe ; the country around Marche is called Famenne, 

 pcrliaps after the tribe of the Paijmani, or Phemanni ; whilst the fine pasture-lands 

 between the Meuse and the Vesdre are known as Herve. 



