and situated on the south side of that city; it is ten leagues in
diameter; on which vast extent, scarce a tree, shrub, or verdure is
visible; the whole spot being covered with flint stones of various
sizes, and of singular shapes. _Petrarch_ says, as _Strabo_, and others
have said before him, that those flint stones fell from Heaven like
hail, when _Hercules_ was fighting there against the giants, who,
finding he was likely to be overcome, invoked his father _Jupiter_, who
rained this hard shower of flint stones upon his enemies, which is
confirmed by _Æschylus_.

"Jupiter Alcidem quando respexit inormem,
Illachrymans, Ligures saxoso perpluit imbre."

But as this account may not be quite satisfactory to you, who I know
love truth more than fable, I am inclined to think you will consider
_Possidonius_'s manner of accounting for it more feasible: He says, that
it was once a great lake, and having a bed of gravel at the bottom,
those pebble stones, by a succession of ages, have grown to the size
they now appear; but whether stones grow which lie upon the surface of
the earth and out of their proper strata, I must leave you and other
naturalists to determine, without repeating to you what _Aristotle_, and
others, have said upon that subject; and therefore, instead of telling
you either what they say, or I think, I will tell you what I know, which
is, that barren as the _Crau_ appears to be, it not only feeds, but
fattens an infinite number of sheep and cattle, and produces such
excellent wine too in some parts of it, that it is called _Vin de
Crau_, by way of pre-eminence: it has a poignant quality, is very
bright, and is much esteemed for its delicious flavour. The herb which
fattens the sheep and feeds such quantities of cattle is a little plant
which grows between and under the flint stones, which the sheep and