194 
THE SEINE, THE MEUSE, AND THE MOSELLE 
meanders still occupied Ijy the river farther down the trench. 
The radius of curvature is essentially the same in the several 
cases. The slopes on the outsides of the troughs have the char- 
acteristic, hlufi-like descent from the upland. The isolated hills 
are the ends of interlocking spurs, now dissevered from the up- 
lands hy the cross-cut of the river ; the ends of these hills that 
project into the horseshoe troughs have the comparative!}" gentle 
descent of the spurs that are elsewhere found projecting into the 
actual meanders. Not only so ; the eastern branch of the south- 
ern horseshoe is just opposite and in line with the western branch 
of the northern horseshoe. There can he no doubt that the vigor- 
ous Moselle has here so earnestly swung against its outer bank 
that it has actually shortened its own course by cutting through 
the narrow necks of the intervening spurs. Perhaps I am giving 
too much emphasis to this occurrence. It is not a great rarity, 
for similarly abandoned river meanders are not infrequent in 
other })lateaus. They are known in the plateau of Wiirtemberg, 
where it is trenched by the Neckar at Lauffen and just above, 
and in the plateau of western Pennsylvania, trenched by the Ohio 
and its branches. It is not, however, the mere occurrence of 
these cut-off meanders, but rather the lesson that they teach, that 
deserves emphasis. They all indicate strong river action. The 
Moselle must therefore be regarded as an able-bodied, vigorous 
river, like the Seine. 
Tlte staggering Mease . — Let us now look at the INIeuse. From 
some distance above Commercy, down stream as far as Verdun 
and beyond, this river, like the others, follows a well-defined 
meandering valley, incised beneath uplands on either side. As 
before, the slope of the bluffs on the outer side of the valley 
curves is comparatively steep, while the slope of the spurs on the 
inner side of the curves is relatively gentle. Just above Com- 
mercy, near Sarcy-sur-Meuse, one of the spurs is almost cut 
through and is now connected with its upland l>y a very narrow 
and low neck, which alone separates the Hood-plain of the curv- 
ing valley on either side. The railway and canal both save dis- 
tance by cutting across the low neck. At Dun-sur-Meuse the 
neck of a former spur is entirely cut through. It now stands as 
an isolated hill surrounded on all sides hy the flat valley floor.* 
*The Etat-major map, 1 : 80,000, suggests three other abandoned meanders : one east 
of Lin 3 '-devant-Dun ; another northeast of Letanne; the third southwest of Mouzon. 
The cutting of some of these meanders may have occurred early in the history of the 
valley. At Koeur-la petite, below Commercy, the map shows the railway and canal run- 
ning through a depression in the neck of a spur that extends toward Han-sur-Meuse, 
and I suppose that the Ste. Austreberte case is here paralleled. 
