. The earth and its inhabitants .. . SMALL state of triangular shape occupies the eastern slope of the Ardennes. The rivers Our, Sauer (Sure), and Moselle separate it from Pthenish Prussia, whilst the boundaries towards Lorraine, France, and Belgium are altogether conventional. Luxemburg, like Belgium, is a neutral territory ; but whilst Belgium only won its neutrality after its soil had many times been hotly contested, Luxemburg has rarely been overrun by invading hosts. When it changed hands, as happened not unfrequently, it did so as a dependency of some neighbouring province, and its forei
. The earth and its inhabitants .. . SMALL state of triangular shape occupies the eastern slope of the Ardennes. The rivers Our, Sauer (Sure), and Moselle separate it from Pthenish Prussia, whilst the boundaries towards Lorraine, France, and Belgium are altogether conventional. Luxemburg, like Belgium, is a neutral territory ; but whilst Belgium only won its neutrality after its soil had many times been hotly contested, Luxemburg has rarely been overrun by invading hosts. When it changed hands, as happened not unfrequently, it did so as a dependency of some neighbouring province, and its foreign masters scarcely ever interfered with the local institutions. In its physical aspects Luxemburg resembles the Belgian province of the same name, except that that portion of it which forms a natural dependency of Lorraine is of greater extent. It occupies the whole of the region to the south of the hilly Oesling (1,810 feet), which joins the plateau of Western Luxemburg to the Eifel in Rhenish Prussia. This southern region, known as "Gutland" { Good'Land), differs in nearly every respect from the northern uplands. These latter are of palaeozoic age, the thin layer of vegetable mould being pierced in many places by Devonian rocks. The Gutland, on the other hand, is of more recent formation, and its valleys are frequently covered with alluvial soil. There are no coals. The artesian brine spring of Mondorf, near Sierck, has been bored to a depth of 2,395 feet, down to tlie Devonian rocks, without meeting with any carboniferous strata. Nearly the whole of the grand duchy lies within the basin of the Moselle, of which the Sauer, its principal river, is a tributary. Most of its valleys are bounded by cliffs or steep slojoes, and thus, although there are no elevated mountains, the country is rich in picturesque scenery. All the ancient lakes have been drained, and so have most of the artificial reservoirs, formerly very numerous. The gain in arable land, however, would
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade18, booksubjectgeography, bookyear1883
