THE STEEL WORKS OF OUGRÉE
On the bank of the River Meuse, between Liège and Seraing
But the very advantages that contributed to the material advancement of Belgium were responsible for the invasions that times without number reddened her soil and enslaved her people. The territory occupied by the Netherlanders (“the people of the low lands,”—the Belgians and the Dutch) lay in the track of all the envious and ambitious nations of Europe. One war succeeded another until, in the year 1830, the Belgians freed themselves of their final and most irritating yoke by successfully employing arms against Holland. At last the Belgians’ country was their own. And now a new Belgium came into being. “Only one common trait,” says a student of Belgian history, “connected the men of the two epochs—the capacity for work.” The exploitation of the coal mines of Seraing (se-ran) and Hainaut (hay-no), the discovery of iron mines, the establishment of great foundries and manufactories, followed the consummation of national independence. A system of railways was organized that had no superior in Europe. The internal waterways of the country—the rivers, canalized rivers and canals—aided in the transportation of manufactures, land products and imports to the extent of millions of tons a year.
HEYST
A fishing village and summer resort on the North Sea coast, near Ostend. At low tide the beach is a moorage for trawlers of the fishing fleet
THE CITY OF LIÈGE
From a print made in the year 1659