622 PROTECTION AGAINST SHIFTING SAND. 



On the coasts of the North Sea and of the Baltic, in Holstein, 

 Schleswig, Jutland, and in the Baltic islands, and along the 

 western coast of France, from the He d'Oleron to the mouth of 

 the Adour river, sand-dunes cover extensive areas, and until 

 effective measures were taken to fix them, large tracts of 

 cultivated land were buried in sand. Along the coasts of West 

 and East Prussia, for a distance of 150 miles, dunes extend to 

 a breadth never less than one-sixth of a mile, and unless they 

 are fixed they encroach inland yearly by 50 feet. The area of 

 European dunes is estimated at 21,000 square miles. 



The coasts of the British Isles consist chiefly of rocky cliffs, 

 but sand-dunes are found in Norfolk, Somersetshire, Lanca- 

 shire, Elgin and other places along the coasts of Great Britain. 



The dunes along the Bay of Biscay in the French Departe- 

 ments des Landes et de la Gironde extend over a total length of 

 140 miles, forming a series of parallel ranges about 160 feet 

 high and 4 miles broad. During the constant political troubles 

 of the middle ages, the natural forests of maritime or cluster 

 pine (P. Pinaster, Soland.), which formerly covered this area, 

 were burned and destroyed, and the saud invaded the country 

 at the rate of 60 to 70 feet annually, covering whole towns and 

 villages, cultivated fields, and vineyards. The passage of 

 watercourses to the sea was interrupted by the accumulated 

 sand ; a desolate malarious region, called Les Landes, resulted. 

 Swamps and lagoons of brackish water alternated with vast 

 tracts of arid sandhills, where a few sheep pastured, tended 

 by shepherds on stilts. 



In 1787, the engineer Bre"rnontier published a treastise 

 showing that the dunes could be fixed by sowing sand-grasses 

 and pines, and the work of fixing the dunes of Gascony was 

 commenced in 1788, and has been continued with complete 

 success up to the present day. In 1810, the French Legisla- 

 ture passed an Act enabling the State to fix dunes belonging 

 to municipalities and private owners, by means of plantations, 

 the owners only recovering their property after paying the 

 cost of fixing the sand. This they have only rarely been able 

 to do, owing to the great cost of the operation compared with 

 the value of the reclaimed land. 



About 800,000 acres have thus been dealt with, the annual 



