380 BELGIUM. 



in the environs of Mons. The coal seams average in thickness from 18 to 

 40 inches, and are very numerous. In the Borinage, to the soutli of Mons, 

 between 130 and 160 have been discovered, two-thirds of them being w^orkable, 

 whilst in the province of Liège there are about 50 profitable seams. The labour of 

 the miners, in their efforts to " win" the coal, has been immense. To the west 

 of Mons it was necessary to sink a pit 980 feet in depth before the coal was 

 reached, the engineers, in the progress of their work, having to struggle against 

 underground collections of water and beds of shifting sand. These pits, says 

 M. Cornet, are the grandest works ever achieved by the mining engineer. The 

 fossil fauna of the Belgian carboniferous system is poor, but the vestiges of vegeta- 

 tion are numerous — ferns, calamités, lepidodendrons, and sigillarias especially 

 abounding. 



In the basin of Charleroi the upper strata have been much curved by lateral 

 pressvire. Above that town no less than twenty-two bendings have been discovered 

 in a distamce of 7,200 yards, whilst, if these strata were to be unfolded and 

 stretched out horizontally, they would cover nearly 7 miles. The lowland now 

 traversed by the Sambre and the Haine was formerly one of the most mountainous 

 regions of Europe. The range of mountains which extended from the English 

 Channel across Belgium to the river Roer was not inferior in elevation to the 

 Alps. The faults discovered in the carboniferous strata sufficiently attest the 

 prodigious geological changes which have taken place in that part of Europe. A 

 fault near Boussu indicates a displacement of the strata to the extent of 7,200 feet, 

 Avhile farther south there has taken place a subsidence of 16,000 feet at least. 



History records the strategical importance of these plains of Central Belgium, 

 which conceal beneath them such distorted strata, and have become so wealthy 

 through their agriculture and industry. They were destined by nature to become 

 a great highway of nations. Migratory tribes, ascending the valleys of the Oise 

 or Schelde, were attracted to this fertile region, bounded on the one side by the 

 forbidding rocks of the Ardennes, and on the other by the swampy tracts extending 

 along the coast. The only natural obstacles which had to be overcome in their 

 progress through this region were small rivers, and provisions were readily pro- 

 cured in so productive a countr3\ These advantages were of greater weight 

 formerly than they are now, and numerous have been the battles fought on 

 this ground since Julius Cœsar's extermination of the valiant Nervii. Many 

 are the fortresses which have been constructed to replace the non-existent 

 natural frontiers. Even the farmhouses in the vast plains which extend to the 

 south and east of Brussels show by their construction that the countr\^ has often 

 been subjected to warlike incursions. Low and of massive structure, their 

 windows open upon an interior court, whilst their gateways are generally defended 

 by a square tower. 



The Campixe. 



Leaving behind us the loams of Hesbaye, we enter upon the sandy tract of the 

 Campine, which occupies the greater portion of North-eastern Belgium. Extensive 



