24 APPEARANCE OP THE LANDES. 



trasted landscape : on the one side, the level pasture land, league 

 after league of grassy gi-eeu, sprinkled with villages, farms, churches, 

 and schools, where work and worship will find exercise through ages 

 yet to come ; on the other, league after league of tawny sand, sloping 

 gently outwards to meet the great sea that ever foams or ripples 

 thereupon. On the one hand, a living scene bounded by the distant 

 wolds ; on the other, a desert, sea and shore alike solitary, bounded 

 only by the overarching sky. More thoughts come crowding into 

 the mind in presence of such a scene than are easy to express.' " 



Such as are these English Dunes and Moors and Fens are the 

 Landes, with which the sand dunes which have been reclaimed to 

 man are associated, and of which they form a part. The special 

 characteristic of them is the sand of which they are composed ; the 

 second characteristic of them is the superficial aspect which the hill- 

 like accumulation of the sand gives to the contour of the country ; 

 a thii'd characteristic is the constant onward movement of the sand 

 landward, covering up valuable fertile land with sterile sand and 

 stagnant waters ; and the last, but not least remarkable characteristic 

 is the forests which now wave over extensive areas thus recovered. 



Of these the writer I have quoted, — I am unable to say whether M. 

 Mangin or his translator, — for the latter states that he has made 

 copious additions to the original work, with the view of rendering its 

 scope more comprehensive and complete, and of adapting it specially 

 to the requirements of the English reader — says : — " The works of 

 Charlemagne, on which he employed his veterans to preserve imperilled 

 cities, have been resumed, and with greater success, by a skilful 

 agriculturist, M. Desbiey, of Bordeaux, and an able engineer, M. 

 Bremontier, who have called in nature herself to assist man in his 

 war against nature. Their system consists of sowing in the driest 

 sand the seeds of the sea-pine, mixed with those of the broom 

 (genista scoparia), and the psamma arenaria. The spaces thus sown 

 are then closely covered with branches to protect them from the 

 action of the winds. These seeds germinate spontaneously. The 

 brooms, which spring up rapidly, restrain the sand, while sheltering 

 the young pines, and thenceforth the Dune ceases to move, because 

 the wind can no longer unsettle its substance, and the grains are 

 held together by the roots of the young plants. The work is always 

 begun on the inland side, in order to protect the farmer and the 

 peasant, and to withdraw the infant forest from the unwholesome 

 influence of the ocean-winds. And, in order that the sown spaces 



