FLOCKS AND HERDS IN PROVENCE. 285 



the Sun God, when the hero had shot all his arrows 

 and was almost overwhelmed by numbers. 



The Camargue " Caii Marii ager " is the delta 

 of the Rhone. An extraordinary region, consisting 

 of swampy flats and reedy mud-banks, where fever 

 reigns, and where the mirage cheats the eye. These 

 marshes are the haunt of the Ibis, the Flamingo, and 

 the Pelican, and in the shifting channels of the 

 stream the Beaver builds his house. These animals 

 are said to do so much mischief to the dams that a 

 reward is given for killing them. 



On the drier ground are herds of half-wild cattle 

 destined for the bull-fights of Languedoc ; and it is 

 said that there are also some hundreds of white horses, 

 the descendants of those left there by the Saracens. 

 This is the Winter resort of the innumerable flocks 

 which graze during the Summer in the Maritime 

 Alps and the mountains of Provence. The very 

 similar marshes between Ravenna and the mouth of 

 the Po are described with much eloquence by Hugo 

 Bassi in Harriet H. King's inspired poem, the 

 " Disciples." The patriot priest looks wistfully 

 across that desolate region "where shore and sea 

 and river lose themselves." 



It would be interesting to ascertain what effect 

 this nocturnal browsing has upon the sheep. And 

 one would think that those Lepidoptera whose larvae 

 are night feeders, such as the Satyridre, must suffer 

 severely ; but the butterflies of this family appear, 

 on the contrary, to be very abundant. 



The flocks in this district are so numerous that 

 they seem to have reached the limit beyond which 

 starvation must begin. One sees the sheep wandering 



