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.
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