In the neighborhood of Meaux, three small tributaries flow into
the Marne--the Ourcq from the north, and the Grand Morin and Petit
Morin from the east. The Marshes of St. Gond, ten miles long from
east to west and a couple of miles across, lie toward the eastern
borders of the Plateau of Sezanne, and form the source of the Petit
Morin, which has been deepened in the reclamation of the marsh
country.
Once more considering the source of the Marne, near Langres, it
will be noted that the River Meuse rises near by, flowing north
by east to Toul, and then north-northwest past Verdun to Sedan,
where it turns due north, flowing through the Ardennes country
to Namur, in Belgium. To the east of the Meuse lies the difficult
forest clad hill barrier, known as the Hills of the Meuse; to the
east extends (as far as Triaucourt) the craggy and broken wooded
country of the Argonne, a natural barrier which stretches southward
in a chain of lakes and forests.
West of this impassible country of the Meuse and the Argonne lies
the plain of Champagne-Pouilleuse, which is almost a steppe, bare
and open, only slightly undulating, overgrown with heath, and studded
here and there by small copses of planted firs, naught but a small
portion of the whole being under cultivation. Between the Forest
of the Argonne and this great plain, which is over a hundred miles
long from north to south and forty miles in width, lies a short
stretch of miniature foothills, with upland meadows here and there,
but crossed in every direction by small ravines filled with shrubs
and low second-growth timber.
Pages:
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128