a Description of the Landes of Acquitania. 
to deliver ourselves over to evil, and confide our destinies to the 
chances of fortune, when all the suggestions of prudence have been 
wasted without success. 
Louis XI. gave to his brother Charles the duchy of Acquitania, 
comprising under that denomination Bordeaux, Basaz, Landes, 
Saintonge, and Rochelle. In 1790, the Constituent Assembly abo- 
lished the ancient division of French territory by provinces, and 
established a new one by departments: six were formed in the 
province of Guyenne, viz. La Gironde, Les Landes, Le Dordogne, 
Le Lot, L’ Aveyron, Le Lot et Garonne. In the original subdivi- 
sion, Guyenne Proper was supposed to be constituted by the Bor- 
delais territory, and the territory dependant on that; thus almost 
all the Landes came under the dominion of Bordeaux, consisting 
of the Pays de Buch, Pays de Born, Pays de Morentin, Benauges, 
Cusagnes, Pays d’entre deux Mers, and Vitrezai. 
The Landes, as constituted by a tract of constant physical cha- 
racters, are very definite in the line of their extent, which, having 
an intimate connection with the hydrography of the country, termi- 
nates with the course of the Garonne on the north, and with that 
of the Adour on the south, being more than two geographical de- 
grees in length, and its breadth in no place exceeding one-half that 
extent. These plains may also be considered as bounded by the 
Medon, Douze, and Etampon, and to the north-east by the Ceron, 
including the greater part of the departments of the Gironde and 
Landes. This tract of land, attaining an elevation of (100 metres,) 
328.26 feet above the level of the sea, is pretty uniformly covered 
with heath shrubs ; in some places interspersed with forest trees. 
Its general characters are those of a continuous level, seldom undu- 
lating, traversed by no ravines, cleft by no mineral dykes, and 
furrowed by few mountain streams. The eye wanders over a great 
monotonous waste, meeting with no change, till it reaches the dark 
recesses of the pine forests, or dwells in rapture on the glittering 
heights of sand which guard the distant coast. The picture, how- 
ever, possesses many peculiar beauties. In the extensive Landes, 
shepherds, generally one or two in company, elevated on stilts, 
form remarkable objects, both by the rapidity of their motions, and 
‘their solitary situation. 
The temporary huts of the woodman, circularly arranged round 
the common fuel, in the small woods of cork tree; the fire of the 
distant resin kiln, lighted on the forest’s borders ; an occasional 
oxen cart, wending its way over the pathless heath ; and sometimes 
2 cottage or two, surrounded by a few fields of maize or millet, 
give some diversity to a scene which, as soon as you penetrate the 
dark woods becomes more lively ; villages are met with, neat gar- 
dens and shrubberies attest the presence of man, and sand-hills, 
undulating the surface, give rise to ponds or marshes ; this is ac- 
companied by a change in vegetation, and in some places by a ma- 
terial improvement in the appearance of the country, and in the 
number and enjoyments of its inhabitants. These fertile tracts ad- 
vance sometimes to the very border of the sandy mountains which 
