GENERAL EEATUEES, ETC. 



379 



The Loam Lands of Central Belgium. 



The valleys of the Sainbre and Meuse separate this upland region of Belgium 

 from an intermediate undulating zone which slopes down gradually towards the 

 ocean, and is irrigated by numerous rivers flowing through wide and shallow 

 valleys. Woods, rivulets, low hills, windmills, and castellated mansions impart 

 an aspect of gentle beauty to some portions of this zone. The environs of Tournay 

 more especially are noted on account of their picturesqueness. Vast meadows 

 surround the town, rivers and canals are bordered with rows of elms and other 

 trees, and some of the detached hills are quite imposing in their appearance. The 

 whole of Central Belgium, including Hesbaye in the east, Brabant in the centre. 



Fig. 214. — IMoNT St. Aubert (480 feet), near Touenay. 

 Scale 1 : Cn.nnn 



rE. of Paris 



"yei-È^^ ? , // /Il '//^ 





fûÈr-'^-'^ik^ éài^i 



/////' m'^ 



1 Mile. 



Hainaut and the country around Tournay in the south and south-west, is covered 

 with a layer of loam similar to the loess of the Rhine, and designated by Belgian 

 geologists as "loam of Hesbaye." Literstratified with it are rolled flints and 

 pebbles, or pierres de Fagnes, which decrease in size as we travel away from 

 the uplands of the Ardennes. This loam completely conceals the more ancient 

 rocks, including the carboniferous strata which fill a huge depression extendino- 

 from Liège to Mons and French Flanders. 



At Namur the lowest seams of coal, those which yield " close-burning coal," crop 

 out on the surface, the superincumbent rocks having been removed by erosion ; but 

 from that place the strata dip down, on the one hand, in the direction of Liège, on 

 the other in that of Mons. At Boussu, to the west of Mons, the lowest coal is 

 supposed to extend to a depth of 7,780 feet. In the basin of Hainaut "caking 

 ccal" is procurable only in the neighbourhood of Charleroi, whilst "open- 

 burning coal," such as is generally used in the manufacture of gas, is only found 



