The eastern portions of the North German plain, as far as the Oder, have
the same character, the same corn-yielding clay soil, as the adjoining
lowlands in Russia; but farther west, round the capital city of Berlin,
the plain becomes less fertile, in some parts sandy and bare. Beyond the
Elbe, in Hanover, the _Lüneburg heath_ covers a large part of the plain;
next it lie the moors, marshes, and fens of Oldenburg and the borders of
Holland, where cattle and horses are the wealth of the land; and beyond
these the highly cultivated lowlands on each side of the Rhine delta,
separated by the heaths and moors of Brabant, which run out toward the
lower Scheldt like a dividing wedge between Holland and Belgium.
Passing into France, and across the broad river basins of its lowlands
which open to the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay, we come upon
the great wine-yielding lands, such as _Champagne_ and the vineyards of
the Gironde, with the corn country of Brie northeast of Paris, and of
Touraine, on the Loire between these; and lastly, at the extremity of
this branch of the European plain, to the _Landes_ along the coast
between the mouth of the Gironde and the Pyrenees, composed of sandy
heaths and marshes.