NOTES ON THE FIXING OF THE DUNES. 253 



The sowing and the spreading cut of the brush- 

 wood must be done simultaneously. At the close of 

 each day's work some spadefuls of sand are thrown 

 over the last row of brushwood to enable it to resist 

 the force of the wind. Care must be taken that the 

 last row is spread out evenly and well against the 

 ground, so as to prevent the wind from getting 

 underneath. Without this precaution a single 

 night is sufficient to destroy the work of several 

 days. 



The pines, the broom, and the furze come up 

 together ; and it has been remarked that the young 

 pines are all the finer for growing along with a large 

 quantity of broom and furze. When these latter are 

 not sufficiently abundant, the covering of brushwood 

 should be carefully maintained, as the protection it 

 affords is necessary during nearly four years. Some- 

 times indeed it has to be renewed, and its mainten- 

 ance constitutes one of the principal operations 

 during that period. 



The reboisement of the littoral dune itself may 

 often be undertaken at the end of a few years, by 

 forming a new littoral dune nearer still to the sea. 

 In any case the maintenance of a littoral dune is a 

 sine qua non ; otherwise every result of previous 

 operations must inevitably be lost by the continual 

 drifting in of new sand. 



Such is a brief description of the operations 

 employed in fixing the dunes. They often entail 

 great labour, and the difficulty is sometimes so great 

 that the fixing and stocking of one acre does not cost 

 less than eight pounds. This outlay ceases to appear 



