512 
TITE LANDES. 
the Landes, or heaths, of Gascony. Clave thus describes it: 
“ Composed of pure sand, resting on an impermeable stratum 
called alios, the soil of the Landes was, for centuries, consid¬ 
ered incapable of cultivation. Parched in summer, drowned 
in winter, it produced only ferns, rushes, and heath, and 
scarcely furnished pasturage for a few half-starved flocks. To 
crown its miseries, this plain was continually threatened by the 
encroachments of the dunes. Vast ridges of sand, thrown up 
by the waves, for a distance of more than fifty leagues along 
the coast, and continually renewed, were driven inland by the 
west wind, and, as they rolled over the plain, they buried the 
soil and the hamlets, overcame all resistance, and advanced 
with fearful regularity. The whole province seemed devoted 
to certain destruction, when Bremontier invented his method 
of fixing the dunes by plantations of the maritime pine.” * 
Although the Landes had been almost abandoned for ages, 
they show numerous traces of ancient cultivation and prosper¬ 
ity, and it is principally by means of the encroachments of the 
sands that they have become reduced to their present desolate 
condition. The destruction of the coast towns and harbors, 
which furnished markets for the products of the plains, the dam¬ 
ming up of the rivers, and the obstruction of the smaller chan¬ 
nels of natural drainage by the advance of the dunes, were no 
doubt very influential causes; and if we add the drifting of 
the sea sand over the soil, we have at least a partial explanation 
of the decayed agriculture and diminished population of this 
great waste. When the dunes were once arrested, and the 
soil to the east of them was felt to be secure against invasion 
by them, experiments, in the way of agricultural improvement, 
by drainage and plantation, were commenced, and they have 
been attended with such signal success, that the complete re¬ 
covery of one of the dreariest and most extensive wastes in 
Europe may be considered as both a probable and a near 
event, f 
* Etudes Fores tieres, p. 253. 
t Lavergne, Economic Rurale de la France , p. 300, estimates the area 
of the Landes of Gascony at 700,000 hoctares, or about 1,700,000 acres. 
