Towards Tains more wine than corn. From thence the plains,
where best, are in corn, clover, almonds, mulberries, walnuts: where
there is still some earth, they are in corn, almonds, and oaks. The
hills are in vines. There is a good deal of forest-wood near Lyons,
but not much afterwards. Scarcely any enclosures. There are a few small
sheep before we reach Tains; there the'number increases.
Nature never formed a country of more savage aspect, than that on
both sides the Rhone. A huge torrent rushes like an arrow between high
precipices, often of massive rock, at other times of loose stone, with
but little earth. Yet has the hand of man subdued this savage scene, by
planting corn where there is a little fertility, trees where there is
still less, and vines where there is none. On the whole, it assumes a
romantic, picturesque, and pleasing air. The hills on the opposite
side of the river, being high, steep, and laid up in terraces, are of
a singular appearance. Where the hills are quite in waste, they are
covered with broom, whins, box, and some clusters of small pines. The
high mountains of Dauphine and Languedoc are now covered with snow.
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