504 
DUNES OF GASCONY. 
matters of detail, is still largely pursued on tliose shores. The 
example of Denmark was soon followed in the neighboring 
kingdom of Prussia, and in the Netherlands ; and, as we shall 
see hereafter, these improvements have been everywhere 
crowned with most flattering success. 
Under the administration of Beventlov, a little before the 
close of the last century, the Danish Government organized a 
regular system of improvement in the economy of the dunes. 
They were planted with the arundo and other vegetables of 
similar habits, protected agaiust trespassers, and at last partly 
covered with forest trees. By these means much waste soil has 
been converted into arable ground, a large growth of valuable 
timber obtained, and the further spread of the drifts, which 
threatened to lay waste the whole peninsula of Jutland, to a 
considerable extent arrested. 
In France, the operations for fixing and reclaiming the 
dunes—which began under the direction of Bremontier about 
the same time as in Denmark, and which are, in principle and 
in many of their details, similar to those employed in the latter 
kingdom—have been conducted on a far larger scale, and with 
greater success, than in any other country. This is partly 
owing to a climate more favorable to the growth of suitable 
forest trees than that of Northern Europe, and partly to the 
liberality of the Government, which, having more important 
landed interests to protect, has put larger means at the disposal 
of the engineers than Denmark and Prussia have found it con¬ 
venient to appropriate to that purpose. The area of the dimes 
already secured from drifting, and planted by the processes in¬ 
vented by Bremontier and perfected by his successors, is about 
100,000 acres.* This amount of productive soil, then, has been 
added to the resources of France, and a still greater quantity 
N 
* “ These plantations, perseveringly continued from the time of Br6- 
montier now cover more than 40,000 hectares, and compose forests which 
are not only the salvation of the department, but constitute its wealth.”_ 
ClavIs, fitudes Forestieres , p. 254. 
Other authors have stated the plantations of the French dunes to be 
much more extensive. 
