al. Marseillette_. May 17. _Marseilleite. Carcassonne_.
From Saumal to Carcassonne 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 canal passes 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. Marseillette
is on a ridge, which separates the river Aube from the Etang de
Marseillette. The canal, in its approach to this village, passes the
ridge, and rides along the front, overlooking the Etang, and the plains
on its border; and having passed 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. _Carcassonne. Castelnaudari_. Opposite to Carcassonne the canal
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 canal, 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 fishing in the canal,
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 Carcassonne. 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 Carcassonne; 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 fo