198 SAND-PLAINS OF BELGIUM. [Jan. 



destruction of trees on sand-plains supplied by drift-sands in the 

 vicinity of Danzig ; and, along with these, details of the effects of 

 the replanting of these sand-plains with trees, in fixing down and 

 utilizing sand-drifts which had been a source of danger and laeen 

 productive of evil. 



An important function in terrestrial economy is fulfilled liy the 

 sand on the sea-shore. It speaks with more effect to the ocean 

 than did Caniite, wlien, reproving the silly flattery of his courtiers 

 by a manifestation of his impotence, he said to the rising tide : 

 "Thus far; but no further! Here let thy proud waves be stayed!" 



But important as may be the arrest by the sand upon the sea- 

 shore of the inland flow of the waves of the sea ; and important as 

 may be sand-dunes upon the coast in presenting a barrier against 

 these waves should they rise in their might, lashed into fury by 

 the storm and the tempest, threatening to submerge the land beyond, 

 — there are extensive districts, both on the coast and in inland 

 localities, in which the sand itself, borne onwards by the wind, has 

 proved as destructive to products of man's industry as would have 

 been an inundation of the sea ; and no more effectual method of 

 binding down the mobile sand is known than that which was here 

 employed. Elsewhere as here, sands held down for a long time 

 by a covering of vegetation have been set free, and have at once, 

 lilce an unloosed chained tiger, commenced a career of devastation, 

 rushing, raging onward, far and fast as the wind could bear them, 

 burying farms and homesteads and fertile fields, devastating lands 

 and burying deep the dwellings of man, till again muzzled and 

 bound down by a mantle of vegetation. 



Sand-drifts on the shores of the Baltic have been thus set free 

 to work their devastation, and have been thus laid ; sand-drifts on 

 the landcs of Gironde have been thus staid and made fertile as the 

 alluvial deposit ; thus have sand-drifts in La Sologne in the interior 

 of France been arrested ; and thus have sand-drifts in the Bannat 

 in Hungary been bound down. In every case they have quietly 

 submitted to the dominion of man, as does the cowed lion to the 

 lion-tamer, perhaps a woman armed only with a riding-switch, made 

 use of only to pat, never to threaten. 



Sand-dunes when in motion show both the movement of the 

 drifting sand, and the consequences which may follow its invasion 

 of a cultivated region ; and in the natural arrest of its progress by 

 the growth of reeds and rushes, grasses, herljs, and bush, may be 

 seen in operation the commencement of the process which man has 

 imitated with happy results. And in the enclosure with trees of 

 spots sought to be brought under economic cidture, such as has 



