VALLEYS AND GREAT LEVELS OF THE EARTH. 



237 



smooth and level than any which are observed in the north of Germany, we travel to the 

 capital Munich, which, with all its palaces and monuments, stands in the midst of a large 

 unattractive level, extending with few interruptions to the Tegern lake, one of the 

 entrance gates of the Alps. 



The level land of the north of Germany extends westward through Holland, Belgium, 

 and France ; and in the latter country it surrounds in a great arc, with but few inter- 

 ruptions, that system of mountains, which, rising in Cevennes, extends to the Lower 

 Rhine. Great diversity in the form and soil of the surface, and the nature of its cultiva- 

 tion, is the character of this part of the neighbouring kingdom, which, with fertile and 

 most fruitful districts, exhibits true steppes and actual deserts. The following sketch of 

 a portion of this flat land that on the western coast is indebted for several of its fea- 

 tures to the lively pictures of modern travellers. Setting out from the Pyrenees, and 

 proceeding to Bourdeaux, we pass over the department of the Landes, the direct track 

 lying through a wild sandy desert, in many parts too unproductive even for sheep walks, 

 in others presenting forests of pine of vast extent. The peasantry live in solitary cabins ; 

 employed in cultivating the soil where it is not absolutely sterile ; tending hardy sheep, 

 or making charcoal in the woods ; traversing the deserts on stilts in order to pass the 

 intervening morasses dry-shod. Reaching the wide and bay -formed mouth of the Gironde, 

 in which its waters lose the wild tempestuousness which marks their early career in the 

 Pyrenees, we meet with a country on the right bank, which in appearance is tolerably 



The Pyrenees from the Great Plain of Languedoc. 



rich, covered with plantations of vines, and sinking softly in innumerable hills down to the 

 sea. The chain of sand on the sea-coast is bordered by a beautiful alternation of fields, 

 woods, and meadows, with villages bearing the aspect of cleanliness and comfort, their white 

 houses and green window-shutters contributing to the agreeable effect of the landscape- 

 Here is the district of Saintonge, which, with its waving valleys and classic reputation, 

 acquired in poetry the name of the Flower of France. Along the whole coast, light- 

 houses have been erected, that of the tower of Cordouan, built by order of Henry IV., 

 being the most ancient and admired, and the most celebrated in France. It stands on a 

 rock two miles out amid the waves, announcing the vicinity of a dangerous coast; and 



