Heaven speed the plan; and
restore thereby oysters to our shores, and shad and salmon to the
rivers both of Western Europe and Eastern North America.
As for the cause of the Landes, it may be easily divined, by the help
of a map and of common sense.
The Gironde and the Adour carry to the sea the drainage of nearly a
third of France, including almost all the rain which falls on the
north side of the Pyrenees. What has become of all the sand and mud
which has been swept in the course of ages down their channels? What
has become--a very small part, be it recollected, of the whole
amount--of all the rock which has been removed by rain and thunder,
frost and snow, in the process of scooping out the deep valleys of
the Pyrenees? Out of that one crack, which men call the Val d'Ossau,
stone has been swept enough to form a considerable island. Where is
it all? In these Landes. Carried down year by year to the Atlantic,
it has been driven back again, year by year, by the fierce gales of
the Bay of Biscay, and rolled up into banks and dunes of loose sand,
till it has filled up what was once a broad estuary, 140 miles across
and perhaps 70 miles in depth.
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