THE CAMPINE is of little value from the agricultural point of view, though some attempts have been made to improve the soil by the methods which have proved so successful in Flanders. A scanty pasturage is afforded to cattle, and buckwheat is grown in the more favoured localities. The Campine may, indeed, be the seat of considerable economic activity in the future. A few years ago coal was discovered under the more recent formations in Antwerp and Limburg, and the various soundings which have since been taken encourage the belief that the resources of the region are very considerable. But it is feared that there are great difficulties in the way of exploiting the coal, and some time must elapse before these can be successfully overcome.
COMMUNICATIONS.—Over the greater part of Belgium geogra phical conditions favour the free movement of railways, and it is only in the south that their distribution is affected, except in a minor degree, by the physical features of the land. Brussels, upon which many of the most important lines converge, may be regarded as the centre of the whole system. It is connected with the French Northern Railway by two lines, one of which goes to Calais by Tournai and Lille, and the other to Paris by Mons and Maubeuge. From Maubeuge another line, connecting Paris and Berlin, runs by the Sambre and the Meuse past Charleroi and Namur to Liege, whence it goes by Verviers to Aachen, and then on to Cologne. Namur, which has direct communication with Brussels, is con nected with Paris by a line which follows the Meuse and its tributary the Virouin, and joins the Northern Railway at Hirson. From this railway there breaks off a branch, which, after running along the valley of the Lesse, joins a line which has come by the valley of the Ourthe from Liege (like Namur in direct communication with Brussels) and then continues its course southwards by Luxem burg to Metz. North of Brussels the most important railway is
that which runs by Mechlin and Antwerp towards Amsterdam. From Mechlin one line going by Ghent joins the railway from Brussels to that town, and proceeds by Bruges to Ostend, a packet station for the United Kingdom ; while another meets the Brussels-Liege line at Louvain.
There are over 1,000 miles of good waterway in Belgium, 900 miles of which are owned by the State. The Lower Scheldt and the Rupel are tidal rivers, but it has been necessary to canalise the Lys, the Upper Scheldt and the Dendre, the Sambre and the Meuse, in order to render them navigable. The Lys and the Scheldt are connected with the canal system of north-eastern France, while the Sambre has been linked up with the Oise, and the Meuse with the Aisne and the Marne. The Meuse and the Scheldt also connect the waterways of Belgium with those of Germany and Holland. Of the canals the most important are the Canal de Jonction, which connects the Meuse and the Scheldt; the Charleroi-Brussels canal and its continuation from Brussels to the Rupel; the Ghent-Bruges canal, which connects these two towns and is continued to Ostend ; and the Terneuzen canal which, by opening up a route from Ghent to the Scheldt, has converted that town into a seaport. The waterways in the west and south-west of Belgium connect that country with the coalfields of the north of France, and the iron ore deposits of Lorraine ; while those in the centre and east bring the coal-producing areas and other industrial districts into communication with one another and with the coast.