it might deposit its rich alluvium over this desert of stones. He spent
his life and his entire fortune in carrying out his scheme, and it is
due to this that year by year the barren desert shrinks, and cultivation
advances. There are to-day other canals, those of Les Alpines, of Langlade,
and d'Istres, besides that of Craponne that assist in fertilising the
waste. Wherever the water reaches, the soil is covered with trees, with
pasture-land, with fields of corn; and in another century probably the
sterility of the Crau will have been completely conquered.

In its present condition, the Crau may be divided into two parts, that
which is watered, and which has been converted into a garden, and that
which is not as yet reached by the rich loamy waters of the Durance, and
is therefore parched and desolate, overrun by herds of sheep and cattle,
driven down in winter from the Alps, when a certain amount of herbage is
found on the desert, which in summer is utterly dry and barren. These
migrations date back to a remote epoch, for they are mentioned by Pliny.

Previous to the construction of the canal by Craponne, who began it in
1554, the desert reached to Arles; the whole of the plain south of the
chain of the Alpines was either marsh lagoon, or a waste of stones, where
now grow and luxuriate mulberries, olives, almond trees and vines. The
canal of Craponne was carried by the originator for thirty-three miles,
sending out branches at Salon, Eyguieres, and elsewhere. In winter the
meadows are green as those of Devon in spring, and the fields yield heavy
crops. Indeed, the Durance acts to this region in the same way as does the
Nile to Egypt. "The meadows I viewed," says Young, "are among the most
extraordinary spectacles the world can afford in respect to the amazing
contrast between the soil in its natural and in its watered state, covered
richly and luxuriantly with clover, chicory, rib-grass, and _Avena
elatior_."