386 



BELGIUM. 



learned geographer must give up in despair the attempt of bringing order out of 

 the chaos. The Lys, for instance, is officially supposed to terminate at Ghent, but 

 in reality its waters discharge themselves also in tlie direction of Ostend and 

 Bruo-es, with whicb it is connected by canals. The principal estuary of the 



Fig. 217.— The Lower Schelde in the Beginning of the Eleventh Century. 

 According to Stessels. Scale 1 : 260,000. 



E.OfG; 



A°IO' 



4°20' 



5 Miles. 



Schelde has considerably changed its position even within historical times. The 

 Hont, or Western Schelde, which is at present the great water highway of 

 Antwerp, was formerly only a shallow creek, across which processions of pilgrims 

 were able to march from Flanders into Walcheren. If old chroniclers can be 

 believed, it was only in 1173 that the sea swept away the dunes which joined 



