was remarkably good. It was sheltered, on each side, from the
rays of the sun, by groves of cork-trees mingled with fir; by
which means, though the day was overpoweringly hot, we did not
suffer so much as we should otherwise have done. Our march was,
therefore, exceedingly agreeable, and we came in, about noon,
very little fatigued, to the village of Ondres, where the tents
were pitched, and we remained till the morrow.

CHAPTER III.

LES LANDES


THE dawn was just beginning to appear, when the bugles sounded,
and the tents were struck. For the first few leagues, our route
to-day resembled that of yesterday, in almost every particular.
There was the same appearance of peaceful quiet, the same
delightful intermingling of woods, corn-fields, vineyards, and
pasture; but we had not proceeded far, when a marked difference
was perceptible; every step we trod, the soil became more and
more sandy, the cultivation less frequent, and the wood more
abundant, till at last we found ourselves marching through the
heart of an immense forest of pines. We had diverged, it
appeared, from the main road, which carries the traveller through
a rich and open country, and were pursuing another through the
middle of those deserts and savannahs which lie towards the
coast; a district known by the name of les Landes. There was
something, if not beautiful, at least new and striking in the
scenery now around us. Wherever the eye turned, it was met by
one wide waste of gloomy pine-trees; diversified, here and there,