THE DESERT WORLD. 



BOOK I. 



DESERTS OF EUROPE AND ASIA: THE LANDES. THE DUNES, 

 AND THE STEPPES. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE DESERT IX" FRANCE : THE LANDES OF BRITTANY. 



[0 those whose imaginations have been kindled by glowing 

 pictures of the African Sahara and the Arabian wilderness, 

 it will be, perhaps, a matter of surprise to learn that even 

 fertile and civilized Europe includes within her boundaries regions 

 which are scarcely less cheerless or desolate, though, happily, of far 

 inferior extent. 



Thus, it would be possible for a Frenchman whom the engage- 

 ments of business, the pressure of limited means, or the ties of home, 

 prevented from undertaking any distant voyages, to obtain a vivid 

 conception of the great Deserts of the World without crossing the 

 confines of his own country. 



In France, so richly cultivated, so laborious, and so blessed by 

 genial Nature, there are, nevertheless, a few districts where her sons 

 may wholly forget may almost disbelieve in the existence of her 



