Pine plantations on the sand-wastes of France

Index to Authorities Cited, v

Preface, ------ — vii

States circumstances in which the volume is published.

Chapter I. — Appearances Presented by Plantations on Drift- Sand, ------- 1

Cites the appearance presented by plantations seen from the bell tower of the Cathedral at Antwerp (p. 1) ; and by vineyards in M£doc and the vicinity of Bourdeaux (p. 2); by Landes adjacent (p. 3) ; by Arcachon (p. 4), and the pignadas in the vicinity (p. 5).

Chapter II. — Appearances Presented by Landes adjacent to the Pine Plantations on Gascony, ... 9

There are given Mangin's description of the Landes (p. 9), and of the Dunes (p. 13), of Dartmoor (p. 17), as corresponding to scenes in Brittany (p. 18) ; of the swampy land of Montoir resembling the Fen country of England (p. 21) ; and there follow notices of what has been done to reclaim the adjacent sand-wastes (p. 24).

Chapter III. — Legislation in Regard to the Planting of the Landes with Trees, - - - - 27

There are given excerpts from the laws issued on 13th Messklor an IX (2nd July, 1801) ; on 3rd Jour compliimentaire, an IX (p. 27) ; 12th July, 1808, 14th December, 1810 (p. 28) ; 5th February, 1817 (p. 29) ; and 29th April, 1862 (p. 30).

Chapter IV. — Literature Relative to the Arrest and Cultivation

of Drift-Sands in France, - - - - 32

Works in French are specified (p. 32) ; works in German (p. 33) ; and works published in Hungary, America, and England are referred to (p. 34).

iv CONTENTS.

Chapter V. — Culture of the Maritime Pine on the Landes of

The preparation of the ground is described (p. 36) ; the zone adjacent to the sea is described (p. 37) ; clayonnages (p. 39) ; sowing and planting (p. 40) ; account given by M. Bagneris (p. 42) ; and by M. Boitel (p. 45) ; thinning (p. 46) ; pruning (p. 48).

Chapter VI. — Exploitation of the Pine Plantations of Gascony, 51 Account of the exploitation of resin, by Bagneris (p. 51) ; of the manufacture of charcoal, by Boitel (p. 57), and that of charcoal dust (p. 63) ; products exhibited in English museums (p. 66).

Chapter VII. — Sylviculture on the Landes of La Sologne, - 69

Account of the Landes of La Sologne (p. 70) ; of their soil (p. 72) ; woods (p. 74) ; culture of pine woods (p. 75) ; reclaiming land by plantation (p. 80).

Chapter VIII. — Inland Sand-Wastes, and Sand-Wastes on the

Differences seen in sand-wastes (p. 81) ; Wessely's account of sand-wastes on the coast (p. 82) ; account of the impermeable alios by M. Faye (p. 84) ; capillary attraction of sand (p. 86) ; absorption and retention of moisture (p. 8S) ; absorption of vegetable nutriment (p. 90) ; peat lands in sand-wastes (p. 92) ; composition of sand (p. 92) ; sand-wastes of the tertiary formation (p. 96) ; woods on such sands (p. 97).

Chapter IX. — Natural History and General Cidture of the Scotch Fir in France, - - - - - 100

Description of the Scotch fir by MM. Lorentz and Parade (p. 100) ; account of arboretum at Barres by the founder, M. Vilmorin (p. 103) ; his observation on the Scotch fir (pi mis sylvestrisj (p. 107) ; the Riga pine (p. 115) ; pine of Smolensk (p. 117) ; Wilna pine (p. 117) ; pine of Tschernigoff (p. 118) ; pine of Volhynia (p. 118) ; varieties of the Riga pine (p. 119) ; Scotch fir (p. 122) ; intermediate varieties (p. 123) ; instructions given in School of Forestry at Nancy in regard to the exploitation of the Scotch fir (p. 131) ; in regard to its economic uses (p. 137) ; and the collecting and preservation of its seed (p. 138), and sowing (p. 141).

Chapter X. — Natural History and General Culture of the Maritime Pine in France, - - - - 143

CONTENTS. V

Section I. — Commendations bestowed on the Maritime Pine, - 143 Commendation by M. Boitel (p. 143) ; by M. Samanos (p. 1-45) ; and by MM. Delamarre, Crinon, and others (p. 147).

Section II. — General Culture and Exploitation of the Maritime Pine, 148

Instructions given at the School of Forestry at Nancy relative to its natural history (p. 149) ; its economic uses and mode of gemmage (p. 151) ; sowing (p. 152) ; exploitation (p. 15-4).

Chapteb XI. — Diseases and Injurious Influences to which the

Maritime Pine is subject, .... 157

Section I. — Choking by an Over-growth of Local Vegetation, - 157

Section II. — Destructive Ravages by Birds, and Squirrels, and

Mode of destruction (p. 157) ; accounts of lignivorous insects by M. Perris (p. 159) ; destruction of the chenille processlonaire (p. 161).

Section III. — Destructive Conseqiiences following the Effects of Charcoal Burning, - - - - - 163

Evils pointed out by Professor Bagneris (p. 163), and accounted for by M. Boitel (p. 163).

Section IV. — Destructive Ravages occasioned by the Mole, - 167 Natural history of the mole by M. Boitel (p. 167) ; destruction of moles (p. 169).

Section V. — Destructive Ravages by Forest Fires, - - 170

Prevention of forest fires mentioned by M. Samanos (p. 170) ; by M. Bartro (p. 171) ; by M. Boitel (p. 171).

Preface

The preparation of this volume for the press was undertaken in consequence of a statement in the Standard and Mail, ' a Capetown paper, of the 22nd July, 1876, to the effect that in the estimates submitted to Parliament <£1,000 had been put down for the Cape Flats, it was supposed with a view to its being employed in carrying out planting operations as a means of reclaiming the sandy tracts beyond Salt River.

In view of the success which has followed the planting of the Landes of Gascony and the Gironde with the maritime pine, it might seem that nothing now can be required in order to arrest and utilise drift-sands, but to plant them judiciously with that tree. But, happily, I may say, the failure of such plantations on the Landes of La Sologne comes to warn us against any such rash generalisation. And the observation of sand downs in Britain, and saud plains elsewhere, show that herbs, carices, reeds, and grasses have operated extensively in arresting effectually, and, according to their measures, in utilising what otherwise would have been barren and destructive sand-wastes.

Looking at the subject generally, all that I consider established by the pine plantations on the sand-wastes of France is the practicability of arresting and utilising sand-drifts by means of plantations of trees. What has been accomplished there we may legitimately infer may be effected elsewhere, not necessarily by the same means, but by means as appropriate, if they can be discovex-ed. But while this may be all that is established there is much more suggested.

And still more might be found to be suggested by a study of the whole of the sand-wastes of Europe, and of the natural history of sand, its composition, its formation, and its aggregation on the shore, in dunes, in drifts, in sand-wastes, and in sand plains, and of the various genera and species of plants growing upon it, and of plantations of broad-leaved trees which have succeeded in other conditions — the poplar, the willow, and the aspen, the elm, the elder, the ash, the acacia, the oak, the hazel, and the dogwood, the birch, and the wild pear. There has been prepared a twin volume, in which these subjects have been discussed.

This volume was originally compiled in view of what seemed to be required at the Cape of Good Hope. It has been revised, and printed now, only as a contribution towards a renewed enterprise, to arrest and utilise sand-wastes which stretch from Table Mountain to the Hottentot Hollaud Mountains ; and additional information is forthcoming if it should be desired.

Appended to reports of the Colonial Botanist for 1864 is a letter on grasses adapted to arrest drifting sand (pp. 99-102), and appended to report of the Colonial Botanist for 1865 is a letter on the arrest of drifting sand, and planting the same with trees (pp. 83-93).

Haddington, 10th April, 1878.

PINE PLANTATIONS ON THE SAND- WASTES OF FRANCE.

CHAPTER I. Appearances Presented by Plantations on Drift Sands

Within the last eighty years much hag been accomplished in the ai'resting of Drift Sand, and in utilising Sand Wastes by a judicious combination of sylviculture and agriculture.

" A spectator placed on the famous bell tower of the cathedral of Antwerp," says Baude in an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes, January, 1859, one of an interesting series of articles entitled Les Cotes de la Manche, " saw not long since on the opposite side of the Schelde only a vast desert plain ; now he sees a forest, the limits of which are confounded with the horizon. Let him enter within its shades. The supposed forest is but a system of regular rows of trees, the oldest of which is not yet forty years of age. These plantations have ameliorated the climate, which had doomed to sterility the soil where they are planted ; while the tempest is violently agitating their tops, the air a little below is still, and sands far more barren than the plateau of La Hague have been formed under their protection into fertile fields."

A similar description of landscape effects, produced by the planting of the Landes of the Gironde in Gascony with pines occurs in Weld's tour through the Pyrenees.

Writing of this district he says : — " Opposite to Blaye, and extending for a considerable distance up and down the Gironde, is the M6doc district, unlovely in appearance, being a vast plain composed of stones and sand, the deposit probably of the river in long past ages. But no smiling valley,

1 Deep meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns, And bowery hollows crown' d with summer sea,'

is so fruitful as is this seeming waste : for it is the nursing mother of those vines, which, stunted though they be, produce the far.

A

2 APPEARANCE PRESENTED BY PLANTATIONS,

famed claret grape. Who, ignorant of these facts, would suppose that an acre of Medoc laud is a fortune !"

Writing of Bourdeaux, the capital port of the district, he says : — " Grand indeed is the water avenue to the great city of Bourdeaux. Flowing beneath the softly wooded heights of Floirac, the tawny Garonne, here upwards of 2,000 feet wide, sweeps in a semi-circle past handsome quays three miles long, bearing all kinds of crafts, from the jaunty felucca from the Mediterranean, to the stately Indiaman ; for the tide at Bourdeaux, though the city is seventy miles from the sea, rises twenty feet. Looking at all this beauty and commercial grandeur, I thought of our Thames, and what it might be if properly embanked and provided with capacious quays.

" Long to be remembered is an afternoon which I spent at Floirac, where one of the great wine merchants resides. After an early dinner, consisting of many delicacies, we adjourned, ladies as well as gentlemen, to an arbour in the pleasure ground, situated at the edge of the wooded heights. Within the arbour a large table was covered with an endless variety of delicious fruits, all grown on the estate ; and while we sat round these abundant products of the rich south, the distant views, which are of the most exquisite nature, were illumed by a sunset of great glory.

" On a day remarkable for an extra allowance of caloric — Bourdeaux is exceedingly hot in summer — I visited the far-famed claret vaults of Messrs Barton & Guestier. Oh, how delicious was the wine I tasted in these deliciously cool regions — tasted ! no, drank ; for it would have been nothing short of an insult to that rare old nestar to have acted according to the advice given when you enter the Loudon Dock wine vaults — taste but do not swallow. Here, within the cool precincts of the cellars, if you have the good fortune to be favoured by being allowed to taste famous vintages, you will be made aware how little, how very little, the middle classes really know what good claret is. The stuff which, impudently assuming that name, is generally our potion at a dinner party, is no more like the prime first growth clarets of Medoc than sloe juice aud brandy is genuine port; but when we remember that a hogshead of good claret, the produce of a first-rate vintage, frequently fetches a thousand francs on the spot, we, at least I, who am of the middle classes, can understand that the chance of making acquaintance with prime claret is very small. The more then, if you are a middle man, will you enjoy a tasting visit to the Bourdeaux claret vaults, and especially if you enter them after a lionising tour through streets baked with a temperature of about 90° weld's description of the landes. 3

. . . Lighted by huge wax caudles, I walked loug aud wonderingly through alleys liued by hogsheads, or barriques, as they are called. The value of these, as I was iuformed, was £120,000. There are generally 10,000 barriques in store, for the most part cobwebbed and venerable vessels emitting a peculiar aroma, something like that of new hay ; for your first-class claret requires to be kept many years before it is ripe for post-prandial honours."

But sterile as seem the lands of the Medoc, where such treasures are produced, they come short in this respect of the appearance presented by the Landes of the Gironde, which have no such tales to tell of fruit and wine.

" A few miles from Bourdeaux," he writes, " you enter the Landes, across which the line is carried to Bayonne. Nothing can be more dreary than these apparently interminable wastes. Your passage across them suggests ideas of the ocean, with this great difference however, that whereas the latter is rarely at rest, the vast tract of the Landes, comprising 600,000 hectares, equal to 1,482,600 acres, except when swept by hurricanes, presents a still and monotonous surface. The soil is sand — endless sand — vertically as well as superficially. Artesian wells have been sunk to nearly the depth of 1,000 feet, and then a scanty supply of wretched yellow water has been the only result. As may be supposed, the lives of the inhabitants of this unpromising region are short, feverish, and sickly. The Landais have a proverb —

The said pellagri, being a fatal disease occasioned by malaria and bad water. Amidst these wastes, lying to the east of the pine forests which fringe the sea coast, the Landais, who are with few exceptions shepherds, spend the long summer days with their flocks of sheep, each animal being as well known to them as their dogs. The Landais shepherd is a primitive being, fond of solitude, rarely venturing near the railway ; when he does, he gazes wonderingly at the passing train — so to see him, you must penetrate into his wilderness. There, amidst the great wastes, clothed in sheeps' skins, and wearing the Navarre cap, you will find him mounted on tall stilts, become, from long habit, like a second pair of legs, for he has been accustomed to them from childhood ; probably knitting while his flock cross the scanty herbage. There he stands, resting against his pole, a strange tripod-looking figure — stranger still when he strides

4 APPEARANCE PRESENTED BY PLANTATIONS.

across the Landes in hot haste after a wandering sheep. He has a small hut, sometimes a wife who aids him in cultivating a small patch of ground, from which he obtains a little corn and a few vegetables. A miserable existence is this, but the dawn of brighter days has, we may hope, appeared for the poor Landais."

Some two hours journeying by rail takes the traveller from Bourdeaux through clouds of dust and forests of pine to Arcachon. " Here," writes an English tourist, " houses, like Indian bungalows, with broad verandahs, and often of only one storey, run for more than a mile along the water's edge, each surrounded by its own ' compound,' to keep up the Indian phraseology, and each with its bathing-house and steps leading down to the beach. From these the lightly-clad inmates emerge at all hours, and pass the greater part of their time either paddling barefoot on the shore when the tide is out, or dancing in groups in the sea, which has the merit, in the eyes of the nervous part of the population, of always being as smooth as a mill-pond. I never saw a place so absolutely and completely given over to bathing. . . But the real charm of Arcachon lies in its pine forests, covering sand-dunes sometimes three or four hundred feet high, and stretching back over the landes, where fresh-water lakes glimmer in the blue distance. Picturesquely grouped within these resinous groves are perched the villas and cottages of the winter town, to which consumptive patients resort in the colder months to breathe turpentine mixed with the soft sea breeze. The extraordinary advantages of this hygienic compound seem to be getting more and more recognised, and each year the number of visitors increases. The high dunes completely shelter the winter town from the violence of the gales, while there is a life and purity in the atmosphere which have worked marvellous results. With a compass one may explore the recesses of these forests for miles on horseback, for there is scarcely any underwood, and one can therefore steer through them in any direction ; though in fact there is not much danger of being very seriously lost, for the forest abounds with the wooden shanties of the collectors of turpentine, who are perpetually at work gashing the trees and emptying the little pots tied on to them, and which contain the sap, into the small tanks prepared to receive it. In the centre of the basin are a couple of sand-banks, one of them partially dry at low water, and on which any number of rabbits may be shot ; and on the other an oyster-park, with an old hulk stranded upon it. Large parties of merry-makers sail to this moist and oozy spot, and,

DESCRIPTION OF THE PIGNADAS. 0

taking off their shoes and stockings, catch their own shrimps, gather their own cockles, and knock the oysters off the tiles upon which they are growing, for themselves ; and then retiring to the hulk, where sundry articles of diet may be purchased, make their cannibal pic-nic with the addition of these living creatures. . . . Another pleasing entertainment, much resorted to by both sexes, is spearing fish by torchlight. On a dark night the bay is sometimes brightly illuminated with the glare of the pine-splinters flaming from the prows of boats in iron cradles, and the shouts of laughter tell of unsuccessful prods with many-pronged spears at the eels and mullet which wriggle or dart round the bright reflection on the water. It requires considerable skill and practice to bring home a large basketful, but some ladies become tolerably expert at this sport."

And here, amidst all the gaiety of a fashionable watering-place, the residenter or the forester may find a solitude, for which he might seek in vain elsewhere, in the forest of pines. " This, indeed," writes "Weld, " is the characteristic feature of Arcachon. The great pine forest of the Landes, locally called pignadas, extends from the Adour to the Gironde, and is an extraordinary monument of man's skill and perseverance.

" Prior to 1789 this vast forest area was —

' A bare strand Of hillocks heaped from ever-shifting sand, Matted with thistles and amphibious weeds, Such as from earth's embrace the salt ooze breeds.'

The sand was so fine as to be wafted by the faintest breeze ; while the great sea storms raised huge sand waves, which overwhelmed vegetation, and, rolling inland, frequently carried desolation and destruction among far distant villages and fields. Such was the state of this part of the country when M. Bremontier, an officer in the Government department of the administration of forests of France, conceived the idea of erecting wattle hurdles and boards near the sea, so as to break the storms ; and of sowing in narrow zones, leeward and at right augles to the prevailing wind, seeds of the Plnus Pinaster and common broom, in the proportion of five pounds of the former to two of the latter per acre. The area sown was then covered or thatched with pine branches, care being taken to prevent these being blown away, by pinning them to the ground. In about six weeks the broom seeds produced plants six inches high, which attained the height of two feet at the close of the year. These

6 APPEARANCE PRESENTED BY PLANTATIONS.

now afforded excellent shelter to the pine plants, which were but 4-inch striplings, and under their fostering protection the pines grew and flourished, until at length, with an ingratitude not unhappily confined to the vegetable world, they suffocated their infantine protectors, and rose high, defiant of the raging sand-storms.

"So effective was M. Bremontier's process that, in 1871, a commission, appointed by Government to examine the Landes, reported that 12,500 acres were covered with thriving and pi'ofitable pines; and the Landais, who had lived to see their howling wastes clothed with far-stretching forests, were enabled to gain a livelihood, less precarious and perilous than that obtained by fishing in the stormy waters of the Biscay Bay.

" Twenty-five years passed, and then the hand of man was busy among the pines. Good as the pinaster is for domestic purposes, La Fontaine says :

' Sera-t-il Dieu, table, ou cuvette ? it is far more valuable for the great quantity of resin, tar, and lamp-black which it produces. As you ride through the pines you will meet the resin-gatherers, resiniers, as they are called, who during the summer months live in the forest ; for the most part a rude set of men, speaking a strange patois, from which, however, you may glean some information. When the resin-harvest is at hand, the resinier goes forth provided with a short ladder and a curved axe. His manner of testing the fitness of a tree to be tapped is by throwing his arms around it. If the trunk be so thick that he cannot see his finger ends, the pine is ripe for the operation. This is performed with great quickness and dexterity. A longitudinal cut or groove is made in the trunk, down which the resin flows, and is caught at the bottom of the stem, in a little trough fashioned in a few moments from the bark removed by the cut. Weekly the wound is re-opened but not widened, and the operation is renewed yearly, until the entire trunk is scored in such a manner as to make you wonder how the maimed bole can support the superincumbent weight. But, stranger still, the pine is not injured by this scoring process ; for, if the operation be judiciously performed, by the time that the resinier has gone round the tree, the first wound has healed, and the trunk is ready to be bled again. Wonderful too is the quantity of resin which exudes from these bountiful trees. You may know where the resiniers have lately been, by the palsamic odour proceeding from the wounded pine. A resin-gatherer told me that after a season's practice — from the first of May to the end of September — a good

COLLECTING OP RESIN. {

hand could score 2,400 trees, scrape the resine molle, which encrusts the trunks, into the troughs with small iron rakes, and carry the resin to the pits where it is boiled. I saw a resinier frequently score a tree to the height of 15 feet, and make a trough in two minutes and a quarter. Such a proficient earns 25 francs weekly, a high wage in this part of France. Indeed, the resinier is far better off now than the small vineyard proprietor, who generally, destitute of capital, is ruined by a failure of his crop. . . .

" When the pines have been scored and re-scored, those destined to make tar — called pins perdus — are cut down. The tar, commercially known as goudron des Landes, not so good, however, as that derived from the Scotch pine, is made by burning the roots and thick portion of the trunk very slowly in cavities made in sloping ground, and the tar is caught in cast-iron pans and run into barrels. An inferior kind of lamp-black is deposited from the smoke of the wood, but a better description is obtained by burning the straw used in straining the resin.

" Besides these products, the resin of the Pinus Pinaster yields common turpentine, and is used extensively for pills. Glaring placards and advertisements at Arcachon further inform the visitor that ' Sdve de Pin Maritime est recommandee contre les affections de poitrine, catarrhes, bronchitis,' &c, by the French Faculty, — a revival by the way, in another form, of tar-water, whose varieties were extolled by Bishop Berkeley long ago, in his curious book, entitled 1 Sevis'. . . .

" And even now the economical uses of resin are not exhausted ; so the Frenchman did not exaggerate when he asserted that, resine est Vor en barriques.

" Many and delightful were the hours that I spent in the Pignadas, generally on horseback, for the country around Arcachon is very favourable for riding, and the small Landais horses are excellent. Arab blood runs in their veins.

" As all the agremens of Arcachon are not yet chronicled in guide books, I may mention that by far the most enjoyable excursion is that to the Pointe du Sud, about six miles south of the town. Start early, when the tide is ebbing, so that you may enjoy the fine, broad, hard sand. At the Pointe du Sud you have the mighty Atlantic before you, the great Biscayan waves breaking at your feet ; while behind dark pines fringe the coast. Return through the forest ; avenues, called Gardes-feu cut through the pines to prevent the spread of fire, extend to Arcachon ; and when you are on the right track, you will

8 APPEARANCE PRESENTED BY PLANTATIONS.

do well not to stray from it, as it is quite possible to realise in these pignadas the unpleasant feeling of losing your way, particularly when the sun has set.

" Few places are more impressive than dark pine forests, now screaming when the wind sweeps through to the trees, and now filling the solitude with murmering voices, when stirred by gentle breezes, and yet not a solitude ; for as you pass through them in the noontide the air trembles with ceaseless hum. Pines are always a favourite home for insects ; and here, in the warm south, they exist in countless multitudes, making even silence vocal ; for, flashing through the air, or sluggishly basking in the summer sun, they are endowed with the power of making the forest resonant with strange sounds. By far the most remarkable of these noisy animals is the Cicada, which attains a great size in the pine forests in Southern France, and emits a loud sound, according to my observation, always increasing in intensity as the temperature rises."

Agriculture, as from the first was intended, has followed in the wake of sylviculture.

" After innumerable futile attempts to reclaim and fertilise portions of this desert, two joint stock companies (Compagnie des Landes, and Compagnie d'Arcachon), have succeeded in reclaiming a considerable portion of the Plaine de Cazaux.

"Sheltered from the prevalent west winds, by the great maritime pine forest, the Plaine de Cazaux, situated to the east or leeward, as may be said, of that forest, is not so liable to the destructive effects of the great sand storms as other parts of the Landes. Rice, tobacco, and the topinambour or Jerusalem artechoke, for which the soil is admirably adapted, are the chief crops. The improvements are in a great measure due to a M. Pierre."

From these pen and ink sketches some idea may be formed of the appearances presented by the pine plantations on the Landes of the Gironde. The forest-like chai-acter of these will bear comparison with that of the plantations seen from the tower of the cathedral of Antwerp. And a knowledge of the general appearance presented by the district may lead to the conclusion that the transformation cannot have been less complete.

Chapter II

Appearances Presented by Lands Adjacent to the Pine Plantations in Gascony.

To appreciate aright the effect produced by the planting of the drift sands of the Landes with pine trees, it is necessary to know something of the appearance presented by the land thus utilised, and of the land around which has thus been transformed into what in comparison therewith is a paradise — a garden of delight. A description of the district, which may be reckoned one of the most dreary and dismal in the land, one altogether at variance with the ideas called up by the designation La Belle France, is given in a work by Arthur Mangin, entitled " The Desert World," from an English translation, of which I cite the following description :

" The department which borrows its name from the Landes of Gascony is divided by the Adour into two wholly dissimilar parts. To the south of the river lies a rich, undulating, vine-bearing country, rich in pasturage and harvest, sown with pleasant villages and smiling country houses, and watered by full streams and little rivers. To the north the appearance of the country changes abruptly. When the traveller has crossed the alluvial zone of the Adour he sees before him a thin, dry, sandy level of a comparatively recent marine formation. Its only products are rye, millet, and maize ; its only vegetation, forests of pines and scattered coppices of oaks ; beyond these, and they do not extend far, all cultivation ceases, and the soil is stripped of verdure ; you enter upon the Landes — seemingly vast as a sea — occupied by permanent or periodical swamps ; and where, over a space of several square leagues, in an horizon apparently boundless, you perceive nothing but heaths, sheepfolds or steadings for the flocks of sheep that traverse these deserts, and shepherds keeping mute watch over their animals, living wholly among them, and having no intercourse with the rest of humanity, except when once a week they seek their masters' houses to procure their supply of provisions. It is these shepherds only ( Landescots and Aouillys), and not, as is generally supposed, all the peasants of the Landes, who are perched upon stilts, so as to survey from afar their wandering flocks, and to traverse more safely the marshes which frequently lie across their path. b