Far the largest amount of pine wood used in both the Royal and the mer chant navy comes from Scandinavia and the Baltic provinces of Russia ; in France and other parts it has been the means of rescuing large tracts of land from the and sands, notably in the district called the Laudes, mid way between the Loire and the Pyren ees, wh ; ch, being flit aad below the soa-level, are laid waste by the shifting of the salt-laden sands which, lyin? light and loo3e ovrr the surface, are blown backwards by every changing win??. Pine trees and, where the soil would bear them, light hedge-rows hav« now been planted here, and the peasants, moving diligently about on high stilts, manage to get a livinsr by tapping the trees for resin. A curious spectacle is presented to the traveller in the form of half-a-dozen little tin cups and vessels, which are bound round the bole of each tree by ligatures ofs'raw to citch the viscous inflam mable substance a* it oozes out, while over the light uncertain soil below the little fallen pine needles lie thickly strewn and lovingly coupled together. —Hone Chimes.
EATING A FORTUNE.
