rom 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 Rochelle, 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 grass. About Rochelle,
it is a low plain. Towards Usseau, and halfway to Marans, level
highlands, red, mixed with an equal quantity 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 Rochelle 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 grass. 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 t