Utrecht (province) the largest in the Netherlands in both area and population. In the east of Utrecht lies the Utrecht Hill Ridge (Dutch: Utrechtse Heuvelrug), a chain of hills left as lateral moraine by tongues of glacial ice after the Saline glaciation that preceded the last ice age. Because of the scarcity of nutrients in the fast-draining sandy soil, the greatest part of a landscape that was formerly heath has been planted with pine plantations. The south of the province is a river landscape. The west consists mostly of meadows. In the north are big lakes formed by the digging of peat
Shima Province and Nara period it was dominated by the Takahashi clan. As the arable land area of Shima Province was very small, portions of the rice lands of Ise Province, as well as Mikawa Province and Owari Province were considered as part of the taxable revenues of Shima Province for the purpose of upkeep of its provincial capital, shrines and temples. The exact location of the provincial capital is not known, but is traditionally believed to have been in Ago, currently part of the city of Shima where the ruins of the "Kokubun-ji" of Shima Province have been discovered. The "Ichinomiya"