* and Consolidation of the Dunes of Gascony. 439 
to be kept in their place by shovelfuls of sand thrown on them at the distance 
of nearly 10 inches from one another. 
9. On the steep slopes, the brushwood branches, as they cannot be fixed by 
sand on them, to be cut and laid on, as just described, and the thick ends 
of the branches to be stuck into the sand to the depth of 4 inches. 
10. For each acre of the dunes to be sown with pine and broom-seed, 
600 faggots of brushwood, of 22^ lbs. each, to be used ; but only 300 faggots 
for the jxirts laid down with gourbet, or for the fixing of the httes * of sand 
which are not sown. 
11. The branches to form these faggots not to be much thicker in the stem 
than 1 inch, and to have all their leaves on them. To be cut at least twenty 
days before being used from the 1st November to the 1st April, and ten days 
for the rest of the year. 
' 12. All the labourers emploj^ed in the preparation and laying down of the 
brushwood, as well as in sowing the seeds on the dunes, to be superintended 
by an intelligent head workman, well instructed in the duty. 
13. The contractor to begin the sowing on the dunes at the southern 
extremity, and doubling back towards the north by parallel zones of sowing 
facing the south-west. 
3. Works of Defexce. 
14. When necessary to protect fresh sowings from the encroachment of 
drifting sand, lines of palisades, or of wattled or other fencing, to be fixed in 
the direction to be marked out by the foreman of the works, according to the 
more or less exposed situation of the parts. 
15. These palisades to be made of 1-inch boards of a height of 5 feet, and 
a breadth of from 6 to 8 inches. A space to be left between each of Iths 
of an inch, and the boards to be fixed to the depth of 2 feet. 
These boards to be of pine-wood, tarred, of very good quality, well smoothed 
on the sides, and without flaws. 
16. The wattled fencing to be either single or double. The first to 
consist of a row of stakes of a mean diameter of 2^ inches, of 5 feet long, 
fixed in the sand, 20 inches deep, with spaces between of 20 inches from 
centre to centre, and wattled and raised above the ground to the height of 40 
I inches. For the double wattling the stakes to be 8 feet long, and 3 inches of 
mean thickness ; but at first only to be wattled to the height of 40 inches 
' from the bottom, so as to leave an equal height for a second wattling when 
the first shall be overtopped. 
17. The other fencing (cordons) to be made of bundles of picked brush- 
' wood of 8 inches diameter at the bottom, and 28 inches at the least in height, 
planted in fives (en quinconce) in two or three rows, according to necessity, 
and fixed a foot deep in the sand. 
18. The direction of the lines of defence for the sowings to be regulated 
in each particular case upon the following ])rinciples : — 
1st. In general the working-plot (I'atelier) should be placed on the west of 
' the dune next the shore, upon a sowing already made, or on a secured lette. 
This condition being fulfilled, if the two ends are not closed they must be 
secured by lines of defence, narrowing from the space between, against the 
danger of the winds blowing from points between the north-west and south- 
; west. These will have a direction following as much as possible these two 
lines, the opening of the angle which they form being turned towards the sea. 
* Lettes are certain parts of the sea-coast which are sm-rounded by sand-hills, 
but not covL-red by sand. They are patches where the moisture arising from 
defective drainage of rain-water, encourages a low herbaceous growth, which 
adds still more to the fixing of the soil. They thus form a good starting-point 
for fresh works. 
