these can be made, they substitute in their room a lamp, fed with
the turpentine extracted from the fir-trees. The whole process
is simple and primitive: to obtain the turpentine they out a hole
in the tree, and fasten a dish in it to catch the sap as it oozes
through; and as soon as the dish is filled, they put a wick of
cotton into the midst of the liquor, and burn it as we do a lamp.
The light is not indeed of the most brilliant nature, but it is
at least better than none; and as they have fir-trees in
abundance within their reach, there is no danger of their oil
being quickly exhausted.

MARCH TO BORDEAUX

In this manner was an entire week expended, each succeeding day
introducing us to a repetition of the same adventures, and a
renewal of the same scenery, which had amused us during the day
before; nor was it till the morning of the twenty-third that we
at last began to emerge from the forests, and to find ourselves
once again in a more open country. At first, however, it cannot
be said that, with respect to beauty, the change was greatly for
the better. Upon the borders of the deserts there is a little
village called Le Barp, where we spent the night of the
twenty-second; from whence, till you arrive at a place called
Belle-Vue, the country is exactly in that state which land
assumes when nature has begun to lose ground, and art to gain
it--when the wild simplicity of the one is destroyed, and the
rich luxuriance of the other has not yet been superinduced. So
far, therefore, we proceeded, regretting, rather than rejoicing,
that we had quitted the woods; but no sooner had we attained that
point, than there burst upon us, all on a sudden, a prospect as