176 TIMBEES AND THEIR USES 



the Adour, there is a tract of country consisting 

 of barren dunes and ridges of sand formed by the 

 high sea winds which sweep over that region. 

 The encroachment of these sands, advancing 

 steadily inland, and in their course overwhelm- 

 ing villages, farms and roads, became so great 

 a public danger that towards the end of the 

 last century strenuous endeavours were made 

 to arrest their progress. Various plans were 

 tried, but the most successful were those adopted 

 in 1789 by M. Bremontier, a civil ingenieur, who 

 buUt paUsades along the dunes, and then, on 

 the landward side of these protective barriers, 

 planted the seeds of Maritime Pine, with a mix- 

 ture of Broom, Gorse and Gourbet or Marram 

 grass, the sowing being continued in successive 

 belts until the whole width of drift-sand was 

 gradually brought under cover. The work thus 

 begun was steadily pursued for many years, 

 until to-day a great part of the dunes and 

 Landes, which embrace an area of over 220,000 

 acres, is covered with valuable Pine forests. 

 They yield a handsome return on the original 

 expenditure, furnishing timber, resin, turpentine 

 and fuel in abundance, whUe the more open 

 tracts afford good pasture for cattle. 



In the reboisement or replanting of denuded 

 mountain lands in Southern and South-Eastern 

 France, an even more difl&cult task lay before 



