182 THE USE OF WOODS 



rifled cannon, while it possesses a far longer range ? Is 

 there any painting or sculpture in the world which rivals 

 that of Italy ? What music is so sweet as the Italian song ? 

 It has now lost its softness, its gentle, mournful cadence ; 

 its tones are spirit-inspiring and martial. Surely brighter 

 and better days are in store for Italy. May we live to see 

 this interesting people, so long the victims of religious 

 and political despotism, free from their enemies and self- 

 governed. u For a nation to be free, it is sufficient that she 

 wills it." 



Leaving Italy for Germany, we find even this country, 

 which has produced so many reformers and philosophers, 

 is not exempt from the terrible consequences of the re- 

 moval of its mountain forests. A journey amongst the 

 forests of Thuringia and the Hartz Mountains furnishes 

 innumerable vouchers of this fact. 



Woods are also useful along the sea-shore, where the 

 coasts are low and sandy, as their roots bind together the 

 loose sand, and prevent its being drifted inland by the sea- 

 breezes. One or two examples will show this in a striking 

 light. 



The sea-sand having overflowed the country situated in 

 the neighborhood of the Gulf of Gascogne, on the western 

 coast of France, and threatened to make it valueless and 

 uninhabitable ; Bremontier, a resident of the province, 

 succeeded in opposing an effectual barrier to its further 

 progress by planting a wood. He first of all planted the 

 sand-loving Broom-Rush (Sarothamnus scoparius), and pro- 

 duced in its shade young Pine-trees, and so brought the 

 overflow of the sea-sand to a stand still. 



By reference to the map of Prussia, it will be seen that 

 the^e is situated in eastern Prussia, between latitude 54 

 15' and 54 45' North, and longitude 19 15' and 20 25' 

 East, an extensive lagoon, called the Frische-Haff, or Fresh 

 Gulf, which is separated from the Baltic by the Frische- 

 Nehrung, or Fresh Beach, a tongue of land thirty-eight 

 miles in length by one in breadth, the northeast extremity 

 of which communicates with the Baltic by a channel half 



