384 BELGIUM. 



or Escaut, whicli between them drain nearly tlie whole of Belgium, bear some 

 resemblance to each other as regards general direction and sinuosity of course. 

 On leaving the soil of France both flow to the northward, but having been joined 

 by their principal western affluent, they both abruptly bend round to the north- 

 east, thus flowing in the same direction as their tributary. The Meuse thus 

 appears to form a continuation of the Sambre, and the Schelde to become the 

 Lower Lys. Before quitting Belgium both rivers resume their original direction, 

 and finally trend round to the west in their course to the ocean. The two rivers 

 likewise resemble each other, inasmuch as the principal tributaries of both join 

 them on the right bank, a feature easily accounted for by the general slope of the 

 country. 



The very resemblances, however, render the contrasts between the two rivers 

 all the more striking. The Meuse, by far the more voluminous of the two, is 

 almost a river of the mountains as compared with the gentle Schelde. Between 

 Mézières and Namur it pierces the Ardennes, instead of avoiding this obstacle by 

 flowing to the west. Clifl's of slate and quartz rock rise above it to a height of 

 150 and 300 feet, and occasionally we obtain glimpses of the edge of the plateau, 

 nearly 1,000 feet higher. Towns and villages climb up the slopes bounding 

 the narrow valley, and old castles, for the most part in ruins or converted into 

 modern citadels, crown the most commanding promontories. M. A. Dumont and 

 other geologists have ascertained that for a considerable portion of its course 

 through the Ardennes the Meuse follows a fault, for the cliffs on both banks do 

 not correspond, and are occasionally even formed of rocks belonging to the 

 different ages. Thus, near the ruins of Poilvache, coal measures may be seen 

 face to face with cliffs of mountain limestone. But although a fissure in the 

 plateau may originally have facilitated the passage of the river, the actual valley, 

 such as we see it now, has been hollowed out in the course of a secular upheaval 

 of the whole region. In proportion as the land rose, so did the river deepen its 

 channel, and the cliflfs bounding its valley increase in height. 



The calcareous districts of the Ardennes and Condroz, traversed by the Meuse 

 and its affluents, abound in caverns, which sometimes swallow up rivers and 

 rivulets. Fissures of this kind are locally known as aiguigcois, or chantoirs. 

 The most famous amongst them is the grotto of Han, which swallows up the 

 Lesse, one of the eastern tributaries of the Meuse. Formerly that river flowed 

 around the rock in an open channel, of which it even now occasionally avails itself 

 when in flood ; but the main body of its water now passes at all times through an 

 underground channel. The river Lhomme at Rochefort has excavated itself a 

 similar channel through the rocks, but the inhabitants of the town have turned it 

 back into its ancient bed. The caverns of Han and Rochefort, like most others of 

 the same kind, branch out in every direction, and abound in stalactites, which 

 fancy converts into fairy veils, statues, or even temples. These caverns, together 

 with bold cliffs, woods, and pastures, have made the reputation of the deep valleys 

 of the basin of the Meuse. The Avinding Semoy, bounded on the north by gentle 

 slopes of triassic age, on the south by scarped cliffs of Jura limestone ; the Lesse, 



