Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson
Chapter 78 : _Avignon. Remoulins_. Some good plains, but generally hills, stony and poor. In olives,

_Avignon. Remoulins_. Some good plains, but generally hills, stony and poor. In olives, mulberries, vines, and corn. Where it is waste the growth is _chene-vert_, box, furze, thyme, and rosemary.

May 10. _Lismes. Lunel_. Hills on the right, plains on the left. The soil reddish, a little stony, and of middling quality. The produce, olives, mulberries, vines, corn, saintfoin. No wood and few enclosures.

Lunel is famous for its _vin de muscat blanc_, thence called Lunel, or _vin muscat de Lunel_. It is made from the raisin muscat, without fermenting the grain in the hopper. When fermented, it makes a red muscat, taking the tinge from the dissolution of the skin of the grape, which injures the quality. When a red muscat is required, they prefer coloring it with a little Alicant wine. But the white is best. The _piece_ of two hundred and forty bottles, after being properly drawn off from its lees, and ready for bottling, costs from one hundred and twenty to two hundred livres, the first, quality and last vintage. It cannot be bought old, the demand being sufficient to take it all the first year.

There are not more than from fifty to one hundred _pieces_ a year, made of this first quality. A _setterie_ yields about one _piece_, and my informer supposes there are about two _setteries_ in an arpent. Portage to Paris, by land, is fifteen livres the quintal. The best _recoltes_ are those of M. Bouquet and M. Tremoulet. The vines are in rows four feet apart, every way.

May 11. _Montpelier_. Snow on the Cevennes, still visible from here.

With respect to the muscat grape, of which the wine is made, there are two kinds, the red and the white. The first has a red skin, but a white juice. If it be fermented in the _cuve_, the coloring matter which resides in the skin, is imparted to the wine. If not fermented in the _cuve_, the wine is white. Of the white grape, only a white wine can be made. The species of saintfoin cultivated here by the name of _spa.r.s.ette_, is the _hedysarum on.o.brychis_. They cultivate a great deal of madder (_garance_) _rubia tinctorum_ here, which is said to be immensely profitable. Monsieur de Gouan tells me, that the pine, of which they use the burs for fuel, is the _pinus sativus_, being two-leaved. They use-for an edging to the borders of their gardens, the santolina, which they call _garderobe_. I find the yellow clover here, in a garden, and the large pigeon succeeding well, confined in a house.

May 12. _Frontignan_. Some tolerably good plains in olives, vines, corn, saintfoin, and lucerne. A great proportion of the hills are waste. There are some enclosures of stone, and some sheep. The first four years of madder are unproductive; the fifth and sixth yield the whole value of the land. Then it must be renewed. The _spa.r.s.ette_ is the common or true saintfoin. It lasts about five years: in the best land it is cut twice, in May and September, and yields three thousand pounds of dry hay to the setterie, the first cutting, and five hundred pounds, the second. The _setterie_ is of seventy-five _dextres en tout sens_, supposed about two arpents. Lucerne is the best of all forage; it is sowed herein the broad-cast, and lasts about twelve or fourteen years. It is cut four times a year, and yields six thousand pounds of dry hay, at the four cuttings, to the setterie. The territory in which the _vin muscat de Frontignan_ is made, is about a league of three thousand _toises_ long, and one fourth of a league broad. The soil is reddish and stony, often as much stone as soil. On the left, it is a plain, on the right hills.

There are made about one thousand _pieces_ (of two hundred and fifty bottles each) annually, of which six hundred are of the first quality, made on the _coteaux_. Of these, Madame Soubeinan makes two hundred, Monsieur Reboulle ninety, Monsieur Lambert, _medecin de la faculte de Montpelier_, sixty, Monsieur Thomas, _notaire_, fifty, Monsieur Argilliers fifty, Monsieur Audibert forty; equal to four hundred and ninety; and there are some small proprietors who make small quant.i.ties.

The first quality is sold, _brut_, for one hundred and twenty livres the _piece_; but it is then thick, and must have a winter and the _fouet_, to render it potable and brilliant. The _fouet_ is like a chocolate-mill, the handle of iron, the brush of stiff hair. In bottles, this wine costs twenty-four sous, the bottle, &c. included. It is potable the April after it is made, is best that year, and after ten years begins to have a pitchy taste, resembling it to Malaga. It is not permitted to ferment more than half a day, because it would not be so liquorish. The best color, and its natural one, is the amber. By force of whipping, it is made white, but loses flavor. There are but two or three _pieces_ a year of red Muscat made; there being but one vineyard of the red grape, which belongs to a baker called Pascal. This sells in bottles at thirty sous, the bottle included. Rondelle, _negociant en vin, Porte St. Bernard, fauxbourg St. Germain, Paris_, buys three hundred pieces of the first quality every year. The _coteaux_ yield about half a piece to the _setterie_, the plains a whole piece. The inferior quality is not at all esteemed. It is bought by the merchants of Cette, as is also the wine of Beziers, and sold by them for Frontignan of the first quality. They sell thirty thousand _pieces_ a year under that name. The town of Frontignan marks its casks with a hot iron: an individual of that place, having two casks emptied, was offered forty livres for the empty cask by a merchant of Cette. The town of Frontignan contains about two thousand inhabitants; it is almost on the level of the ocean. Transportation to Paris is fifteen livres the quintal, and takes fifteen days. The price of packages is about eight livres eight sous the one hundred bottles. A _setterie_ of good vineyard sells for from three hundred and fifty to five hundred livres, and rents for fifty livres. A laboring man hires at one hundred and fifty livres the year, and is fed and lodged; a woman at half as much. Wheat sells at ten livres the _settier_, which weighs one hundred pounds, _poids de table_. They make some Indian corn here, which is eaten by the poor. The olives do not extend northward of this into the country above twelve or fifteen leagues. In general, the olive country in Languedoc is about fifteen leagues broad. More of the waste lands between Frontignan and Mirval are capable of culture; but it is a marshy country, very subject to fever and ague, and generally unhealthy. Thence arises, as is said, a want of hands.

_Cette_. There are in this town about ten thousand inhabitants.

Its princ.i.p.al commerce is wine; it furnishes great quant.i.ties of grape-pumice for making _verdigrise_. They have a very growing commerce; but it is kept under by the privileges of Ma.r.s.eilles.

May 13. _Agde_. On the right of the Etang de Thau are plains of some width, then hills, in olives, vines, mulberry, corn, and pasture. On the left a narrow sand-bar, separating the Etang from the sea, along which it is proposed to make a road from Cette to Agde. In this case, the post would lead from Montpelier by Cette and Agde to Beziers, being leveller, and an hour or an hour and a half nearer. Agde contains six or eight thousand inhabitants.

May 14. _Beziers_. Rich plains in corn, saintfoin, and pasture; hills at a little distance to the right in olives; the soil both of hill and plain is red going from Agde to Beziers. But at Beziers the country becomes hilly, and is in olives, corn, saintfoin, pasture, some vines, and mulberries.

May 15. _Beziers. Argilies. Le Saumal_. From Argilies to Saumal are considerable plantations of vines. Those on the red hills, to the right, are said to produce good wine. No wood, no enclosures. There are sheep and good cattle. The Pyrenees are covered with snow. I am told they are so in certain parts all the year. The ca.n.a.l of Languedoc, along which I now travel, is six _toises_ wide at bottom, and ten _toises_ at the surface of the water, which is one _toise_ deep. The barks which navigate it are seventy and eighty feet long, and seventeen or eighteen feet wide. They are drawn by one horse, and worked by two hands, one of which is generally a woman. The locks are mostly kept by women, but the necessary operations are much too laborious for them. The encroachments by the men, on the offices proper for the women, is a great derangement in the order of things. Men are shoemakers, tailors, upholsterers, staymakers, mantua-makers, cooks, housekeepers, house-cleaners, bed-makers, they _coiffe_ the ladies, and bring them to bed: the women, therefore, to live, are obliged to undertake the offices which they abandon. They become porters, carters, reapers, sailors, lock-keepers, smiters on the anvil, cultivators of the earth, &c. Can we wonder, if such of them as have a little beauty, prefer easier courses to get their livelihood, as long as that beauty lasts? Ladies who employ men in the offices which should be reserved for their s.e.x, are they not bawds in effect? For every man whom they thus emply, some girl, whose place he has thus taken, is driven to wh.o.r.edom. The pa.s.sage of the eight locks at Beziers, that is, from the opening of the first to the last gate took one hour and thirty-three minutes. The bark in which I go is about thirty-five feet long, drawn by one horse, and goes from two to three geographical miles an hour. The ca.n.a.l yields abundance of carp and eel.

I see also small fish, resembling our perch and chub. Some plants of white clover, and some of yellow, on the banks of the ca.n.a.l near Capestan; santolina also, and a great deal of yellow iris. Met a raft of about three hundred and fifty beams, forty feet long, and twelve or thirteen inches in diameter, formed into fourteen rafts, tacked together. The extensive and numerous fields of saintfoin, in general bloom, are beautiful.

May 16. _Le Saumal. Ma.r.s.eillette_. May 17. _Ma.r.s.eilleite. Carca.s.sonne_.

From Saumal to Carca.s.sonne we have always the river Aube close on our left. This river runs in the valley between the Cevennes and Pyrenees, serving as the common receptacle for both their waters. It is from fifty to one hundred and fifty yards wide, always rapid, rocky, and insusceptible of navigation. The ca.n.a.l pa.s.ses in the side of hills made by that river, overlooks the river itself, and its plains, and has its prospect ultimately terminated on one side by mountains of rock, overtopped by the Pyrenees, on the other by small mountains, sometimes of rock, sometimes of soil, overtopped by the Cevennes. Ma.r.s.eillette is on a ridge, which separates the river Aube from the Etang de Ma.r.s.eillette. The ca.n.a.l, in its approach to this village, pa.s.ses the ridge, and rides along the front, overlooking the Etang, and the plains on its border; and having pa.s.sed the village, re-crosses the ridge, and resumes its general ground in front of the Aube. The land is in corn, saintfoin, pasture, vines, mulberries, willows, and olives.

May 18. _Carca.s.sonne. Castelnaudari_. Opposite to Carca.s.sonne the ca.n.a.l receives the river Fresquel, about thirty yards wide, which is its substantial supply of water from hence to Beziers. From Beziers to Agde the river Orb furnishes it, and the Eraut, from Agde to the Etang de Thau. By means of the _ecluse ronde_ at Agde, the waters of the Eraut can be thrown towards Beziers, to aid those of the Orb, as far as the _ecluse de Porcaraigne_, nine geometrical miles. Where the Fresquel enters the ca.n.a.l, there is, on the opposite side, a waste, to let off the superfluous waters. The horse-way is continued over this waste, by a bridge of stone of eighteen arches. I observe them fis.h.i.+ng in the ca.n.a.l, with a skimming net of about fifteen feet diameter, with which they tell me they catch carp. Flax in blossom. Neither strawberries nor peas yet at Carca.s.sonne. The Windsor-bean just come to table. From the _ecluse de la Lande_ we see the last olive trees near a _metairee_, or farm-house-, called _La Lande_. On a review of what I have seen and heard of this tree, the following seem to be its northern limits. Beginning on the Atlantic, at the Pyrenees, and along them to the meridian of La Lande, or of Carca.s.sonne; up that meridian to the Cevennes, as they begin just there to raise themselves high enough to afford it shelter. Along the Cevennes, to the parallel of forty-five degrees of lat.i.tude, and along that parallel (crossing the Rhone near the mouth of the Isere) to the Alps; thence along the Alps and Apennines, to what parallel of lat.i.tude I know not. Yet here the tracing of the line becomes the most interesting. For from the Atlantic, so far we see this production the effect of shelter and lat.i.tude combined. But where does it venture to launch forth unprotected by shelter, and by the mere force of lat.i.tude alone? Where, for instance, does its northern limit cross the Adriatic?

I learn, that the olive tree resists cold to eight degrees of Reaumur below the freezing-point, which corresponds to fourteen above zero of Fahrenheit: and that the orange resists to four degrees below freezing of Reaumur, which is twenty-three degrees above zero of Fahrenheit.

May 19. _Castelnaudari. St. Feriol. Escamaze. Lampy_. Some sheep and cattle; no enclosures. St. Feriol, Escamaze, and Lampy are in the montagnes noires. The country almost entirely waste. Some of it in shrubbery. The _voute d'Escamaze_ is of one hundred and thirty-five yards. Round about Castelnaudari the country is hilly, as it has been constantly from Beziers; it is very rich. Where it is plain, or nearly plain, the soil is black: in general, however, it is hilly and reddish, and in corn. They cultivate a great deal of Indian corn here, which they call millet; it is planted, but not yet up.

May 20. _Castelnaudari. Naurouze. Villefranche. Baziege_. At Naurouze is the highest ground which the ca.n.a.l had to pa.s.s between the two seas. It became necessary, then, to find water still higher to bring it here. The river Fresquel heading by its two princ.i.p.al branches in the _montagnes noires_, a considerable distance off to the eastward, the springs of the most western one were brought together, and conducted to Naurouze, where its waters are divided, part furnis.h.i.+ng the ca.n.a.l towards the ocean, the rest towards the Mediterranean, as far as the _ecluse de Fresquel_, where, as has been before noted, the Lampy branch and the Alzau, under the name of the Fresquel, enter.

May 20. They have found that a lock of six _pieds_ is best; however, eight _pieds_ is well enough. Beyond this, it is bad. Monsieur Pin tells me of a lock of thirty _pieds_ made in Sweden, of which it is impossible to open the gates. They therefore divided it into four locks. The small gates of the locks of this ca.n.a.l have six square _pieds_ of surface.

They tried the machinery of the jack for opening them. They were more easily opened, but very subject to be deranged, however strongly made. They returned, therefore, to the original wooden screw, which is excessively slow and laborious. I calculate that five minutes are lost at every basin by this screw, which, on the whole number of basins, is one eighth of the time necessary to navigate the ca.n.a.l: and of course, if a method of lifting the gate at one stroke could be found, it would reduce the pa.s.sage from eight to seven days, and the freight equally.

I suggested to Monsieur Pin and others a quadrantal gate, turning on a pivot, and lifted by a lever like a pump-handle, aided by a windla.s.s and cord, if necessary. He will try it, and inform me of the success. The price of transportation from Cette to Bordeaux, through the ca.n.a.l and Garonne is ------ the quintal: round by the straits of Gibraltar is ------. Two hundred and forty barks, the largest of twenty-two hundred quintals (or say, in general, of one hundred tons), suffice to perform the business of this ca.n.a.l, which is stationary, having neither increased nor diminished for many years. When pressed, they can pa.s.s and repa.s.s between Toulouse and Beziers in fourteen days; but sixteen is the common period. The ca.n.a.l is navigated ten and a half months of the year: the other month and a half being necessary to lay it dry, cleanse it, and repair the works. This is done in July and August, when there would perhaps be a want of water.

May 21. _Baziege. Toulouse_. The country continues hilly, but very rich.

It is in mulberries, willows, some vines, corn, maize, pasture, beans, flax. A great number of chateaux and good houses in the neighborhood of the ca.n.a.l. The people partly in farm-houses, partly in villages.

I suspect that the farm-houses are occupied by the farmers, while the laborers (who are mostly by the day) reside in the villages. Neither strawberries nor pease yet at Baziege or Toulouse. Near the latter are some fields of yellow clover.

At Toulouse the ca.n.a.l ends. It has four communications with the Mediterranean. 1. Through the ponds of Thau, Frontignan, Palavas, Maguelone, and Manjo, the _ca.n.a.l de la Radela Aigues-mortes, le ca.n.a.l des Salines de Pecair,_ and the arm of the Rhone called _Bras de Fer_, which ends at Fourgues, opposite to Arles, and thence down the Rhone. 2.

At Cette, by a ca.n.a.l of a few hundred _toises_, leading out of the Etang de Thau into the sea. The vessels pa.s.s the Etang, though a length of nine thousand _toises_, with sails. 3. At Agde, by the river Eraut, twenty-five hundred _toises_. It has but five or six _pieds_ of water at its mouth. It is joined to the ca.n.a.l at the upper part of this communication, by a branch of a ca.n.a.l two hundred and seventy _toises_ long. 4. At Narbonne, by a ca.n.a.l they are now opening, which leads from the great ca.n.a.l near the aqueduct of the river Cesse, twenty-six hundred _toises_, into the Aude. This new ca.n.a.l will have five lock-basins, of about twelve _pieds_ fall each. Then you are to cross the Aude very obliquely, and descend a branch of it six thousand _toises_, through four lock-basins to Narbonne, and from Narbonne down the same branch, twelve hundred _toises_ into the _Etang de Sigen_, across that Etang four thousand _toises_, issuing at an inlet, called _Grau de la Nouvelle_, into the Gulf of Lyons. But only vessels of thirty or forty tons can enter this inlet. Of these four communications, that of Cette only leads to a deep sea-port, because the exit is there by a ca.n.a.l, and not a river. Those by the Rhone, Eraut, and Aude, are blocked up by bars at the mouths of those rivers. It is remarkable, that all the rivers running into the Mediterranean are obstructed at their entrance by bars and shallows, which often change their position. This is the case with the Nile, Tiber, the Po, the Lez, le Lyoron, the Orbe, the Gly, the Tech, the Tet, he. Indeed, the formation of these bars seems not confined to the mouths of the rivers, though it takes place at them more certainly. Along almost the whole of the coast, from Ma.r.s.eilles towards the Pyrenees, banks of sand are thrown up parallel with the coast, which have insulated portions of the sea, that is, formed them into etangs, ponds, or sounds, through which here and there narrow and shallow inlets only are preserved by the currents of the rivers. These sounds fill up in time, with the mud and sand deposited in them by the rivers. Thus the Etang de Vendres, navigated formerly by vessels of sixty tons, is now nearly filled up by the mud and sand of the Aude. The Vistre and Vidourle, which formerly emptied themselves into the Gulf of Lyons, are now received by the _Etangs de Manjo_ and Aiguesmortes, that is to say, the part of the Gulf of Lyons, which formerly received, and still receives those rivers, is now cut off from the sea by a bar of sand, which has been thrown up in it, and has formed it into sounds. Other proofs that the land gains there on the sea, are, that the towns of St. Giles and Notre Dame d'Asposts, formerly seaports, are no far from the sea, and that Aiguesmortes, where are still to be seen the iron rings to which vessels were formerly moored, and where St. Louis embarked for Palestine, has now in its vicinities only ponds, which cannot be navigated, and communicates with the sea by an inlet, called _Grau du Roy_, through which only fis.h.i.+ng-barks can pa.s.s. It is pretty well established, that all the Delta of Egypt has been formed by the depositions of the Nile, and the alluvions of the sea, and it is probable that that operation is still going on. Has this peculiarity of the Mediterranean any connection with the scantiness of its tides, which, even at the equinoxes, are of two or three feet only? The communication from the western end of the ca.n.a.l to the ocean, is by the river Garonne. This is navigated by flat boats of eight hundred quintals, when the water is well; but when it is scanty, these boats carry only two hundred quintals, till they get to the mouth of the Tarn.

It has been proposed to open a ca.n.a.l that far from Toulouse, along the right side of the river.

May 22. _Toulouse_. 23. _Agen_. 24. _Castres. Bordeaux_. The Garonne, and rivers emptying into it, make extensive and rich plains, which are in mulberries, willows, corn, maize, pasture, beans, and flax. The hills are in corn, maize, beans, and a considerable proportion of vines. There seems to be as much maize as corn in this country. Of the latter, there is more rye than wheat. The maize is now up, and about three inches high. It is sowed in rows two feet or two and a half feet apart, and is pretty thick in the row. Doubtless they mean to thin it. There is a great deal of a forage they call _farouche_. It is a species of red trefoil, with few leaves, a very coa.r.s.e stalk, and a cylindrical blossom of two inches in length, and three quarters of an inch in diameter, consisting of floscules, exactly as does that of the red clover. It seems to be a coa.r.s.e food, but very plentiful. They say it is for their oxen. These are very fine, large, and cream-colored. The services of the farm and of transportation are performed chiefly by them. There are a few horses and a.s.ses, but no mules. Even in the city of Bordeaux we see scarcely any beasts of draught but oxen. When we cross the Garonne at Langon, we find the plains entirely of sand and gravel, and they continue so to Bordeaux. Where they are capable of any thing, they are in vines, which are in rows, four, five, or six feet apart, and sometimes more. Near Langon is Sauterne, where the best white wines of Bordeaux are made. The waste lands are in fern, furze, shrubbery, and dwarf trees. The farmers live on their farms. At Agen, Castres, Bordeaux, strawberries and pease are now brought to table; so that the country on the ca.n.a.l of Languedoc seems to have later seasons than that east and west of it. What can be the cause? To the eastward, the protection of the Cevennes makes the warm season advance sooner. Does the neighborhood of the Mediterranean co-operate? And does that of the ocean mollify and advance the season to the westward? There are ortolans at Agen, but none at Bordeaux. The buildings on the ca.n.a.l and the Garonne are mostly of brick, the size of the bricks the same with that of the ancient Roman brick, as seen in the remains of their buildings in this country. In those of a circus at Bordeaux, considerable portions of which are standing, I measured the bricks, and found them nineteen or twenty inches long, eleven or twelve inches wide, and from one and a half to two inches thick; their texture as fine, compact, and solid as that of porcelain. The bricks now made, though of the same dimensions, are not so fine. They are burnt in a kind of furnace, and make excellent work. The elm tree shows itself at Bordeaux peculiarly proper for being spread flat for arbors. Many are done in this way on the Quay des Charterons. Strawberries, pease, and cherries at Bordeaux.

May 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. Bordeaux. The cantons in which the most celebrated wines of Bordeaux are made, are Medoc down the river, Grave adjoining the city, and the parishes next above; all on the same side of the river. In the first, is made red wine princ.i.p.ally, in the two last, white. In Medoc they plant the vines in cross-rows of three and a half _pieds_. They keep them so low, that poles extended along the rows one way, horizontally, about fifteen or eighteen inches above the ground, serve to tie the vines to, and leave the cross row open to the plough.

In Grave they set the plants in quincunx, i.e. in equilateral triangles of three and a half pieds every side; and they stick a pole of six or eight feet high to every vine, separately. The vine-stock is sometimes three or four feet high. They find these two methods equal in culture, duration, quant.i.ty, and quality. The former, however, admits the alternative of tending by hand or with the plough. The grafting of the vine, though a critical operation, is practised with success. When the graft has taken, they bend it into the earth, and let it take root above the scar. They begin to yield an indifferent wine at three years old, but not a good one till twenty-five years, nor after eighty, when they begin to yield less, and worse, and must be renewed. They give three or four workings in the year, each worth seventy or seventy-five livres the journal, which is of eight hundred and forty square ioises, and contains about three thousand plants. They dung a little in Medoc and Grave, because of the poverty of the soil; but very little; as more would affect the wine. The _journal_ yields, _communions annis_, about three _pieces_ (of two hundred and forty, or two hundred and fifty bottles each). The vineyards of first quality are all worked by their proprietors. Those of the second, rent for three hundred livres the journal: those of third, at two hundred livres. They employ a kind of overseer at four or five hundred livres the year, finding him lodging and drink: but he feeds himself. He superintends and directs, though he is expected to work but little. If the proprietor has a garden, the overseer tends that. They never hire laborers by the year. The day wages for a man are thirty sous, a woman's fifteen sous, feeding themselves.

The women make the bundles of sarment, weed, pull off the snails, tie the vines, and gather the grapes. During the vintage they are paid high, and fed well.

Of Red wines, there are four vineyards of the first quality; viz. 1.

_Chateau Margau_, belonging to the Marquis d'Agincourt, who makes about one hundred and fifty tons, of one thousand bottles each. He has engaged to Jernon, a merchant. 2. _La Tour de Segur, en Saint Lambert_, belonging to Monsieur Miresmenil, who makes one hundred and twenty-five tons. 3. _Hautbrion_, belonging two-thirds to M. le Comte de Femelle, who has engaged to Barton, a merchant: the other third to the Comte de Toulouse, at Toulouse. The whole is seventy-five tons. 4. _Chateau de la Fite_, belonging to the President Pichard, at Bordeaux, who makes one hundred and seventy-five tons. The wines of the three first, are not in perfection till four years old: those of _de la Fite_, being somewhat lighter, are good at three years; that is, the crop of 1786 is good in the spring of 1789. These growths, of the year 1783, sell now at two thousand livres the ton; those of 1784, on account of the superior quality of that vintage, sell at twenty-four hundred livres; those of 1785, at eighteen hundred livres; those of 1786, at eighteen hundred livres, though they had sold at first for only fifteen hundred livres.

Red wines of the second quality, are Rozan, Dabbadie or Lionville, la Rose, Qui-rouen, Durfort; in all eight hundred tons, which sell at one thousand livres, new. The third cla.s.s, are Galons, Mouton, Ga.s.sie, Arboete, Pontette, de Ferme, Candale; in all two thousand tons, at eight or nine hundred livres. After these, they are reckoned common wines, and sell from five hundred livres, down to one hundred and twenty livres, the ton. All red wines decline after a certain age, losing color, flavor, and body. Those of Bordeaux begin to decline at about seven years old.

Of White wines, those made in the canton of Grave, are most esteemed at Bordeaux. The best crops are, 1. _Pontac_, which formerly belonged to M.

de Pontac, but now to M. de Lamont. He makes forty tons, which sell at four hundred livres, new. 2. _St. Brise_, belonging to M. de Pontac; thirty tons, at three hundred and fifty livres. 3. _De Carbonius_, belonging to the Benedictine monks, who make fifty tons, and never selling till three or four years old, get eight hundred livres the ton.

Those made in the three parishes next above Grave, and more esteemed at Paris, are, 1. _Sauterne_. The best crop belongs to M. Diquem at Bordeaux, or to M. de Salus, his son-in-law; one hundred and fifty tons, at three hundred livres, new, and six hundred livres, old. The next best crop is M. de Fillotte's, one hundred tons, sold at the same price. 2.

_Prignac_. The best is the President du Roy's, at Bordeaux. He makes one hundred and seventy-five tons, which sell at three hundred livres, new, and six hundred livres, old. Those of 1784, for their extraordinary quality, sell at eight hundred livres. 3. _Barsac_. The best belongs to the President Pichard, who makes one hundred and fifty tons, at two hundred and eighteen livres, new, and six hundred livres, old. Sauterne is the pleasantest; next Prignac, and lastly Barsac: but Barsac is the strongest; next Prignac, and lastly Sauterne; and all stronger than Grave. There are other good crops made in the same parishes of Sauterne, Prignac, and Barsac; but none as good as these. There is a virgin wine, which, though made of a red grape, is of a light rose color, because, being made without pressure, the coloring matter of the skin does not mix with the juice. There are other white wines, from the preceding prices down to seventy-five livres. In general, the white wines keep longest. They will be in perfection till fifteen or twenty years of age.

The best vintage now to be bought, is of 1784; both of red and white.

There has been no other good year since 1779. The celebrated vineyards before mentioned, are plains, as is generally the canton of Medoc, and that of the Grave. The soil of Hautbrion, particularly, which I examined, is a sand, in which is near as much round gravel or small stone, and very little loam: and this is the general soil of Medoc. That of Pontac, which I examined also, is a little different. It is clayey, with a fourth or fifth of fine rotten stone; and at two feet depth, it becomes all a rotten stone. M. de Lamont tells me, he has a kind of grape without seeds, which I did not formerly suppose to exist; but I saw at Ma.r.s.eilles dried raisins from Smyrna without seeds. I see in his farm at Pontac, some plants of white clover, and a good deal of yellow: also some small peach trees in the open ground. The princ.i.p.al English wine merchants at Bordeaux, are Jernon, Barton, Johnston, Foster, Skinner, Copinger, and M'Cartey: the chief French wine merchants, are Feger, Nerac, Bruneaux Jauge, and Du Verget. Desgrands, a wine-broker, tells me they never mix the wines of first quality: but that they mix the inferior ones to improve them. The smallest wines make the best brandy. They yield about a fifth or sixth.

May 28, 29. From Bordeaux to Blaye, the country near the river is hilly, chiefly in vines, some corn, some pasture: further out, are plains, boggy and waste. The soil, in both cases, clay and grit. Some sheep on the waste. To Etauliers, we have sometimes boggy plains, sometimes waving grounds and sandy, always poor, generally waste, in fern and furze, with some corn however, interspersed. To Mirambeau and St. Genis, it is hilly, poor, and mostly waste. There are some corn and maize however, and better trees than usual. Towards Pons, it becomes a little red, mostly rotten stone. There are vines, corn, and maize, which is up.

At Pons we approach the Charente; the country becomes better, a blackish mould mixed with a rotten chalky stone: a great many vines, corn, maize, and farouche. From Lajart to Saintes and Rochefort, the soil is reddish, its foundation a chalky rock, at about a foot depth; in vines, corn, maize, clover, lucerne, and pasture. There are more and better trees than I have seen in all my journey; a great many apple and cherry trees: fine cattle and many sheep.

May 30. From Rochefort to La Roch.e.l.le, it is sometimes hilly and red, with a chalky foundation, middling good; in corn, pasture, and some waste: sometimes it is reclaimed marsh, in clover and corn, except the parts accessible to the tide, which are in wild gra.s.s. About Roch.e.l.le, it is a low plain. Towards Usseau, and halfway to Marans, level highlands, red, mixed with an equal quant.i.ty of broken chalk; mostly in vines, some corn, and pasture: then to Marans and halfway to St.

Hermine, it is reclaimed marsh, dark, tolerably good, and all in pasture: there we rise to plains a little higher, red, with a chalky foundation, boundless to the eye, and altogether in corn and maize.

May 31. At St. Hermine, the country becomes very hilly, a red clay mixed with chalky stone, generally waste, in furze and broom, with some patches of corn and maize; and so it continues to Chantonay, and St.

Fulgent. Through the whole of this road from Bordeaux, are frequent hedge rows, and small patches of forest wood, not good, yet better than I had seen in the preceding part of my journey. Towards Montaigu, the soil mends a little; the cultivated parts in corn and pasture, the uncultivated in broom. It is in very small enclosures of ditch and quickset. On approaching the Loire to Nantes, the country is leveller: the soil from Roch.e.l.le to this place may be said to have been sometimes red, but oftener gray, and always on a chalky foundation. The last census, of about 1770, made one hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants at Nantes. They conjecture there are now one hundred and fifty thousand, which equals it to Bordeaux.

June 1,2. The country from Nantes to L'Orient is very hilly and poor, the soil gray; nearly half is waste, in furze and broom, among which is some poor gra.s.s. The cultivated parts are in corn, some maize, a good many apple trees; no vines. All is in small enclosures of quick hedge and ditch. There are patches and hedge-rows of forest-wood, not quite deserving the name of timber. The people are mostly in villages; they eat rye-bread, and are ragged. The villages announce a general poverty, as does every other appearance. Women smite on the anvil, and work with the hoe, and cows are yoked to labor. There are great numbers of cattle, insomuch that b.u.t.ter is their staple. Neither a.s.ses nor mules: yet it is said that the fine mules I have met with on my journey, are raised in Poictou. There are but few _chateaux_ here. I observe mill-ponds, and hoes with long handles. Have they not, in common with us, derived these from England, of which Bretagne is probably a colony? L'Orient is supposed to contain twenty-five thousand inhabitants. They tell me here, that to make a reasonable profit on potash and pearlash, as bought in America, the former should sell at thirty livres, the latter thirty-six livres, the quintal. Of turpentine they make no use in their vessels.

Bayonne furnishes pitch enough; but tar is in demand, and ours sells well. The tower of L'Orient is sixty-five _pieds_ above the level of the sea, one hundred and twenty _pieds_ high, twenty-five _pieds_ in diameter; the stairs four feet radius, and cost thirty thousand livres, besides the materials of the old tower.

June 3, 4, 5. The country and productions from L'Orient to Rennes, and from Rennes to Nantes, are precisely similar to those from Nantes to L'Orient. About Rennes, it is somewhat leveller, perhaps less poor, and almost entirely in pasture. The soil always gray. Some small, separate houses, which seem to be the residence of laborers, or very small farmers; the walls frequently of mud, and the roofs generally covered with slate. Great plantations of walnut, and frequently of pine. Some apple trees and sweet-briar still in bloom, and broom generally so. I have heard no nightingale since the last day of May. There are gates in this country made in such a manner, that the top rail of the gate overshoots backwards the hind post, so as to counterpoise the gate, and prevent its swagging.

_Nantes_. Vessels of eight feet draught only can come to Nantes. Those which are larger, lie at Painboeuf, ten leagues below Nantes, and five leagues above the mouth of the river. There is a continued navigation from Nantes to Paris, through the Loire, the ca.n.a.l de Briare and the Seine. Carolina rice is preferred to that of Lombardy for the Guinea trade, because it requires less water to boil it.

June 6, 7, 8. _Nantes. Ancenis. Angers. Tours_. Ascending the Loire from Nantes, the road, as far as Angers, leads over the hills, which are gray, oftener below than above mediocrity, and in corn, pasture, vines, some maize, flax, and hemp. There are no waste lands. About the limits of Bretagne and Anjou, which are between Loriottiere and St. George, the lands change for the better. Here and there, we get views of the plains on the Loire, of some extent, and good appearance, in corn and pasture. After pa.s.sing Angers, the road is raised out of the reach of inundations, so as at the same time to ward them off from the interior plains. It pa.s.ses generally along the river side; but sometimes leads through the plains, which, after we pa.s.s Angers, become extensive and good, in corn, pasture, some maize, hemp, flax, pease, and beans; many willows, also poplars and walnuts. The flax is near ripe. Sweet-briar in general bloom. Some broom here still, on which the cattle and sheep browse in winter and spring, when they have no other green food; and the hogs eat the blossoms and pods, in spring and summer. This blossom, though disagreeable when smelt in a small quant.i.ty, is of delicious fragrance when there is a whole field of it. There are some considerable vineyards in the river plains, just before we reach Les Trois Volets (which is at the one hundred and thirty-sixth milestone), and after that, where the hills on the left come into view, they are mostly in vines. Their soil is clayey and stony, a little reddish, and of southern aspect. The hills on the other side of the river, looking to the north, are not in vines. There is very good wine made on these hills; not equal indeed to the Bordeaux of best quality, but to that of good quality, and like it. It is a great article of exportation from Anjou and Touraine, and probably is sold abroad, under the name of Bordeaux. They are now mowing the first crop of hay. All along both hills of the Loire, is a ma.s.s of white stone, not durable, growing black with time, and so soft, that the people cut their houses out of the solid, with all the part.i.tions, chimnies, doors, &c. The hill sides resemble cony burrows, full of inhabitants. The borders of the Loire are almost a continued village. There are many chateaux: many cattle, sheep, and horses; some a.s.ses.

Tours is at the one hundred and nineteenth mile-stone. Being desirous of inquiring here into a fact stated by Voltaire, in his _Questions Encylopediques_, article _Coquilles_, relative to the growth of sh.e.l.ls unconnected with animal bodies at the _Chateau_ of Monsieur de la Sauvagiere, near Tours, I called on Monsieur Gentil, _premier secretaire de l'ntendance_, to whom the Intendant had written on my behalf, at the request of the Marquis de Chastellux.

I stated to him the fact as advanced by Voltaire, and found he was, of all men, the best to whom I could have addressed myself. He told me he had been in correspondence with Voltaire on that very subject, and was perfectly acquainted with Monsieur de la Sauvagiere, and the Faluniere where the fact is said to have taken place. It is at the Chateau de Grillemont, six leagues from Tours, on the road to Bordeaux, belonging now to Monsieur d'Orcai. He says, that De la Sauvagiere was a man of truth, and might be relied on for whatever facts he stated as of his own observation; but that he was overcharged with imagination, which, in matters of opinion and theory, often led him beyond his facts; that this feature in his character had appeared princ.i.p.ally in what he wrote on the antiquities of Touraine; but that as to the fact in question, he believed him. That he himself, indeed, had not watched the same identical sh.e.l.ls, as Sauvagiere had done, growing from small to great; but that he had often seen such ma.s.ses of those sh.e.l.ls of all sizes, from a point to a full size, as to carry conviction to his mind that they were in the act of growing; that he had once made a collection of sh.e.l.ls for the Emperor's cabinet, reserving duplicates of them for himself; and that these afforded proofs of the same fact; that he afterwards gave those duplicates to a Monsieur du Verget, a physician of Tours, of great science and candor, who was collecting on a larger scale, and who was perfectly in sentiment with Monsieur de la Sauvagiere, and not only the Faluniere, but many other places about Tours, would convince any unbia.s.sed observer, that sh.e.l.ls are a fruit of the earth, spontaneously produced; and he gave me a copy of De la Sauvagiere's _Recueil de Dissertations_, presented him by the author, wherein is one _Sur la vegetation spontanee des coquilles du Chateau des Places_. So far, I repeat from him. What are we to conclude? That we have not materials enough yet, to form any conclusion. The fact stated by Sauvagiere is not against any law of nature, and is therefore possible; but it is so little a.n.a.logous to her habitual processes, that, if true, it would be extraordinary: that to command our belief, therefore, there should be such a suite of observations, as that their untruth would be more extraordinary than the existence of the fact they affirm. The bark of trees, the skin of fruits and animals, the feathers of birds, receive their growth and nutriment from the internal circulation of a juice through the vessels of the individual they cover.

We conclude from a.n.a.logy, then, that the sh.e.l.ls of the testaceous tribe receive also their growth from a like internal circulation. If it be urged, that this does not exclude the possibility of a like sh.e.l.l being produced by the pa.s.sage of a fluid through the pores of the circ.u.mjacent body, whether of earth, stone, or water; I answer, that it is not within the usual economy of nature, to use two processes for one species of production. While I withhold my a.s.sent, however, from this hypothesis, I must deny it to every other I have ever seen, by which their authors pretend to account for the origin of sh.e.l.ls in high places. Some of these are against the laws of nature, and therefore impossible; and others are built on positions more difficult to a.s.sent to, than that of De la Sauvagiere. They all suppose these sh.e.l.ls to have covered submarine animals, and have then to answer the question, How came they fifteen thousand feet above the level of the sea? And they answer it, by demanding what cannot be conceded. One, therefore, who had rather have no opinion than a false one, will suppose this question one of those beyond the investigation of human sagacity; or wait till further and fuller observations enable him to decide it.

_Chanteloup_. I heard a nightingale to-day at Chanteloup. The gardener says it is the male, who alone sings, while the female sits; and that when the young are hatched, he also ceases. In the boudoir at Chanteloup, is an ingenious contrivance to hide the projecting steps of a staircase. Three steps were of necessity to project into the boudoir: they are therefore made triangular steps; and instead of being rested on the floor, as usual, they are made fast at their broad end to the stair door, swinging out and in, with that. When it shuts, it runs them under the other steps; when open it brings them out to their proper place. In the kitchen garden, are three pumps, worked by one horse. The pumps are placed in an equilateral triangle, each side of which is of about thirty-five feet. In the centre is a post, ten or twelve feet high, and one foot in diameter. In the top of this, enters the bent end of a lever, of about twelve or fifteen feet long, with a swingle-tree at the other end. About three feet from the bent end, it receives, on a pin, three horizontal bars of iron, which at their other end lay hold of one corner of a quadrantal crank (like a bell crank) moving in a vertical plane, to the other corner of which is hooked the vertical handle of the pump. The crank turns on its point as a centre, by a pin or pivot pa.s.sing through it. The horse moving the lever horizontally in a circle, every point of the lever describes a horizontal circle. That which receives the three bars, describes a circle of six feet in diameter.

It gives a stroke then of six feet to the handle of each pump, at each revolution.

_Blois. Orleans_. June 9, 10. At Blois, the road leaves the river, and traverses the hills, which are mostly reddish, sometimes gray, good enough, in vines, corn, saintfoin. From Orleans to the river Juines, at Etampes, it is a continued plain of corn, and saintfoin, tolerably good, sometimes gray, sometimes red. From Etampes to Etrechy, the country is mountainous and rocky, resembling that of Fontainebleau. _Quere_. If it may not be the same vein?

LETTER LVIII.--TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL, June 14, 1787

TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.

Paris, June 14, 1787.