LANDES. This department of France calls for a little notice here on account of the extraordinary mode in which some of the inhabitants are obliged to pursue their indus trial avocations. Much of the department consists of a loose ashen-gray sandy soil. Numerous flocks of wretched half-starved sheep wander over this desert waste, tended by shepherds who walk on high stilts to enable them to pass dry.footed over the marshes that occur in all directions. Clothed in sheep skins, perched on his lofty stilts, and seated on a high staff with a flat broad end, the shepherd of the Landes watching his sheep, and knitting woollen stockings, his constant occupation, presents to the stranger unpre pared for the sight an extraordinary appear ance. Not only the shepherds, but the charcoal burners, and almost all the scanty population of the Landes, are accustomed to the use of stilts, on which they walk with astonishing rapidity. The most important produce of the Landes are the pine forests which cover nearly one-fourth of the surface, and which, besides the value of the timber, yield a great quantity of resin. The more
fertile districts of the department yield wheat, maize, millet, hemp, flax, madder, saffron, &C. About 10,000,000 gallons of wine are produced annually, of which about a third goes to sup ply the home consumption; the rest is ex ported, or distilled and sold as Armagnac brandy. Mines of iron and bitumen are worked ; mica, coal, marble, granite, lithogra-1 phic stones, chalk, ochre, potters' clay of superior quality, crucible earth, &c., are found. Peat fuel is dug. The industrial produce is composed of coarse woollens, pottery, liqueurs, bar iron and ironware, resin, pitch, tar, glass, paper, leather, brandy, beer, oil, &c. There is also a considerable trade in timber, deals, linseed oil, fruits, wool, pork, &c.