MEUSE (anciently Mosa, Flemish Maes, Dutch Maas), a river of Europe, which takes its rise in the plateau of Langres, being formed by the union of two small streams above the village of Meuse, in the department of Haute-Marne. It flows northward in a narrow valley across the departments of Vosges, Meuse, and Ardennes, till it enters Belgium. At Namur it takes a N.E. direction; then separates Dutch from Belgian Limburg, and enters Holland; then turns to the N.W., and afterwards to the W. At a short distance below Gorcum it divides into two arms, the northern of which gets the name of Merwe, and again divides into the Maas and the Oude-Maas, or Old Meuse, inclosing between them the island of Ysselmonde, and falling among shoals and quicksands into the German Ocean. The other arm of the Meuse, flowing farther to the S., also separates into two smaller streams, one of which, called Haring-Vliet or Herring Stream, and afterwards Flakkee, separates the islands of Voorn and Over-Flakkee, and falls
by a wide estuary into the ocean; and the other enters the sea farther S., between the islands of Over-Flakkee and Schouwen, communicating also by a smaller branch with the estuary of the Schelde. The whole length of the Meuse is about 550 miles; but a direct line from its source to its mouth would not exceed 230 miles in length. It is navigable as far as Verdun, a distance from the sea of 430 miles, of which nearly 300 are in Holland and Belgium. In the upper part of its course the river flows through a narrow valley, where the scenery is wild and picturesque, the precipitous cliffs sometimes leaving only a narrow defile, through which the river flows. In the lower part the appearance of the country is of a very different nature. Here there stretch large plains, which were originally under water, but have been recovered by the laborious and persevering efforts of the Dutch. The delta formed by the Meuse is greater than that of any other river in Europe. The Meuse receives in France the Mouzon, the Vair, and the Chiers; in Belgium the Sambre, the Lesse, and the Ourthe; in Holland the Roer, the Niers, and the Rhine, by its three branches the Waal, the Leck, and the Yssel. The principal towns on the Meuse are,—Neufchâteau, Verdun, Sedan, Charlemont, and Givet, in France; Namur and Liège in Belgium; and Maastricht, Venloo, Grave, Gorcum, Willemstad, and Rotterdam, in Holland.