By decree of 12th July, 1808, it was declared: "Art. 22. There shall be established in the department of the Landes a commission for the plantation of the Dunes. "This commission shall be organised in the same manner as that established at Bordeaux in execution of the decree of the 13th Messidor, an IX." On the 14th December, 1810, the following decree was passed by Napoleon: "Napoleon, &c.-On the report of our Minister of the Interior, our Council of State having been heard, we have decreed and do decree as follows: "Art. 1. In the maritime departments there shall be taken measures for the sowing, the plantation, and the culture of vegetables known to be the most suitable for the fixation of Dunes. "2. To this effect the Prefects of all the departments in which are Dunes shall cause to be prepared in their respective departments by the Ingenieurs des Ponts et Chaussées, a chart of the Dunes which are susceptible of being fixed by plantations appropriate to their nature ; they shall cause to be distinguished on their charts the Dunes which belong to the domains, those which belong to communes, and those which are the property of private persons. "3. Each Prefect shall draw out, or cause to be drawn out, in support of these charts, a memoir on the most advantageous manner of proceeding, according to localities, in the sowing and planting of the Dunes; they shall annex to this report a draft of regulations, which shall contain the measures of administration the most appropriate to his department, which can be usefully employed to effect the end desired. "4. The charts, memoirs, and drafts of regulations, got up and drawn out in execution of the foregoing articles, shall be sent by the Prefects to our Minister of the Interior, who can, on the report of our Director-General des Ponts et Chaussées, order the plantation if the Dunes do not include any private property; and, in the contrary case, he shall make his report to us, to be by us decided in Council of State in the form adopted for regulations of public administration. "5. In the cases in which the Dunes shall be the property of private persons, or of communes, the charts shall be published, and posted up in the forms prescribed by the law of 8th March, 1810; and if the said private persons or communes find themselves incapable of executing the works commanded, or refuse to do so, the public administration shall be authorised to see to the plantation at their expense; they shall retain possession of the Dunes, and collect the proceeds of the fellings which may then be made, until complete recovery shall have been made of the expenses which have been incurred in the case, and of interest thereon; after this the Dunes shall return to the proprietors, under burden of maintaining satisfactorily the plantations thereon. "6. In time coming no felling de plants d'oyats, of mat grass épines maritimes, pine trees, silver firs, larches, and other arenaceous plants, ministering to the conservation of the Dunes, shall be made without the special authorisation of the Director-General des Ponts et Chaussées, and on the advice of the Prefects. "7. There shall be established Guards for the conservation of the plantations actually existing on the Dunes, or which shall be made there in time to come; their appointment, their number, their duties, their salary, their uniform, shall be regulated after the mode in use, for the guards of communal woods. "Offences shall be prosecuted before the tribunal, and punished conformally to the provisions of the Penal Code. "8. We do not design, by the present decree, to innovate aught on what is practised for the plantations which are being executed in the Dunes of the departments of the Landes, and of the department of the Gironde. 9. Our Ministers of the Interior, and of Finances, are charged each in what concerns him, with the execution of this decree." After the restoration there was decreed the following Ordinance : "Ordinance of 5th February, 1817, relative to the fixation and the sowing of the Dunes on the departments of the Gironde and the Landes. "Louis, &c.—On the reports of our Ministers, Secretaries of State in the departments of the Interior and of Finance, our Council of State being heard, we have ordained, and do ordain as follows: "Art. 1. The works of fixation and of sowing the Dunes in the departments of the Gironde and of the Landes shall be resumed in 1817. "These works shall, in regard to execution, be directed by our Director-General des Ponts et Chaussées, under the authority of our Minister of the Interior. 2. The necessary funds for this operation shall be charged in the budget des Ponts et Chaussées, the yearly credit must not exceed 90,000 francs for the two departments. 3. The works shall be executed, the expenditure made, and the accounts rendered, according to the mode adopted for the service des Ponts et Chaussées. "4. In succession as the sowings reach an age which shall be afterwards determined, they shall cease to be entrusted to the Director des Ponts et Chaussées; but he shall transfer them to the General Administration of Forests. "5. The General Administration of Forests shall furnish, free of charge, to the Direction des Ponts et Chaussées, the seeds, young trees, and boughs, yielded by the forests which they administer, which shall be necessary for the fixation and sowing of the Dunes. "6. The Ingenieurs des Ponts et Chaussées are authorised to require assistance of the forest agents and guards in the tours of inspection which they shall have to make over the whole extent of the Dunes. "7. It shall subsequently be decided what special measures shall be taken to prevent and to repress the offences which tend to destroy or to injure the works of sowing the Dunes. "8. A regulation of our Director-General des Ponts et Chaussées, approved by our Minister, Secretary of State for the Interior, shall determine the advance of the works, their range and their surveillance. (This was done by a regulation dated 7th October, 1817.) "9. The orders of 2nd July, and 20th September, 1807, are abrogated, together with all other provisions contrary to the present ordinance. "10. Our Minister, Secretary of State for the Interior, is charged with the execution of the present ordinance." On 29th April, 1862, was issued a decree, which places the superintendance of the Dunes within the duties of the Minister of Finance.* The provisions of this are as follows: "Art. 2. The works of fixation, of maintenance, of conservation, and of exploitation of the Dunes in the maritime coast are placed within the range of duties of the Minister, Secretary of State of Finance, and they are entrusted to the Forest Administration. "3. These provisions shall come into operation on 1st July, 1862. "4. Our Ministers of State, of Finance, of Agriculture, of Commerce, and of Public Works, are charged each in what relates to his de * A law appears to have been issued in 1857, enjoining the draining and planting of all lands belonging to communities within the district of the Landes, but this I have not seen. partment with the execution of the present decree, which shall be inserted in the Bulletin des Lois. These enactments tell this much of the history of the work : that the views of M. Bremontier commended themselves to the execution of the Republic, and that he was entrusted with the execution of the work at the public expense, under legitimate restriction; that the work was ordered to be begun at the Dunes of La Teste in Gascony, in the first year of the present century, and seven years later they were begun on the Landes; that the work was carried out with if possible greater energy under Napoleon the 1st, and subsequently under Louis XIV; and that, carried out previously under the Minister of the Interior, they were in 1862 transferred to the control of the Minister of Finance, and entrusted to the Forest Administration. CHAPTER IV. LITERATURE RELATIVE TO THE ARREST AND CULTIVATION OF THE work of planting the Landes of Gascony, as has been stated, was begun in 1789. In 1790 was published a Memoire sur les Dunes, &c., by M. Bremontier, by whom the work was projected and begun under the direction of M. Necker. In this memoir M. Bremontier describes the formation of the sand-dunes, and of the measures which had been adopted to arrest the drifting of the sand. In 1806 appeared a Rapport sur les differents Memoirs de M. Bremontier, by M. M. Laumont, et autres. In 1827 was published Historique de la creation d'une Richesse Millionaire, par la culture des Pins, by M. Delamarre; In 1831, a Notice sur les travaux de la fixation des Dunes, by M. Lefert, Ingenieur des Ponts et des Chaussées, in Annales des Ponts et Chaussées, 1831, 2nd Semestre. In 1833, in Annales des Ponts, &c., 1st Semestre, were reprinted the Memoire by Bremontier, and the Rapport, by Laumont and others, mentioned above. 1842, a Notice sur le pin Maritime, by M. Lorentz, appeared in Annales forestiere. 1847, a Memoire sur les Dunes de Golf de Gascoyne, par M. Laval, Ingenieur en chef, Directeur des Ponts et Chaussées, appeared in Annales des Ponts, &c., 2nd Sémestre. This is spoken of as a very remarkable Memoir, which, though less extensive and comprehensive in subject than that of the distinguished Bremontier, fully and perfectly explains the formation of Dunes, and the latest and most approved methods employed to fix them. In 1857 was published a second edition of Mise en valeur des terres pauvres par le Pin Maritime, by Amédée Boitel, Inspecteur de l'agriculture. In 1862 appeared an interesting article entitled, Le littoral de la France, by Elissée Reclus, in the Revue des Deux Mondes, for December, 1862, |