ACOOITNT GIVEN BY COUBBEGES. 39 



dates the sand on level spots which present little hold to the violence 

 of the wind ; but it is the maritime pine which plays the most im- 

 portant part in effecting this. 



Two principal things have to be attended to by the forester to 

 whom it is entrusted to sow the pines in these mobile lands. He 

 must seek first to prevent the adjacent sand from invading and 

 annihilating the sowing ; and, second, to prevent the wind carrying 

 away or otherwise modifying the surface of the ground sown : that is, 

 in other words, he must fix down the adjoining sand, and protect the 

 ground sown. The first must be done by plantation of Gourbet, 

 calamagrostis armaria (sand small reed), or by clayonnages, lines of 

 wickerwork. We are indebted to Courreges, a careful observer, 

 early lost to forest science, for the following notes preserved in the 

 Annates forestiere for 1847, which relate to the employment of these 

 wickerwork fences and the subsequent sowing of the seed. 



" The clayonnage is the best means to employ to consolidate the 

 drift-sands and prevent their displacement on parts exposed to the 

 wind ; and this is the first thing to do before proceeding to sow the 

 seed. 



" Clayonnage may be effected in three ways — first, with planks or 

 beams ; second, with stakes dressed with branches ; third, with 

 heather or other bushes. 



" It is carried out in such a way as to receive at an angle of 45°, 

 the winds coming from the north-west or from the south-west, which 

 are the most violent winds, and those most to be feared for the 

 sowings. It takes the form of a triangle of which the base is parallel 

 to the shore, and the two sides form, with this base, an angle of 45°, 

 the exact direction of the aforesaid winds.'' 



The employment of planks and beams, in the structure of these, is 

 almost abandoned. It is the most expensive of the three modes 

 of clayonnage, and it does not appear to me that it would be of any 

 use to describe it. 



" The Clayonnage of stakes, is composed of poles, about 2 metres 

 (or nearly 7 feet) long, planted in lines some 20 inches apart. They 

 are united by branches of heather, or other bushes placed as closely 

 together as possible 



" The Clayonnage of heather is formed of four parallel ranges of 

 bundles of Erica Scoparia (small green-flowered heath), or of other 

 bushes growing on the land, such as whins, brooms, &o. These 

 bundles may be 9 or 10 inches in girth ; they are planted — quincunx, 

 fashion 6 inches apart — in lines 10 inches distant. 



