The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1924-06-04

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington d. Co
France, heavily populated for cen
turies, is thought of as land of man,
small farms and a few estates of rea
sonable size, but with no place for tn
cowboy, a creature of the broad plains
But France, unknown even to man.
Frenchmen, has its cowboys and 1T
Cow country" in the Camargue, {
region in the delta Of the Rhone.
The Camargue is not large, but such
as it is it is truly a region Of cattle
and horsemen, where herds are round
ed up, roped and branded, where one
hears the creak of leather and the
pounding of hoofs, and where life has
the freedom and outdoor stamp that
1t always has in the open spaces. Set
an Arizona cowboy, an Argentinian
gaucho or a Venezuelon llanero down
in the Camargue after he had toured
the rest Of France and he would prob
ably draw the first free breath he had
drawn in months.
Once the Camargue was as fertile as
the delta of the Nile and was devoted
to grain growing. But 1t was despoiled
by Louis XIV and became a waste
land Of scrubby grass. Cattle raising
which rescued 1t from It's wilderness
condition, has thriven in the marshy
plain for many years. But the cow
boy may not hold on there for long,
for drainage and irrigation are max
ing inroads about the borders of the
wild country and reclamationists
dream Of the day when the entire delta
will become again such a granary as
1t was in Roman days.
Among the clumps Of scrubby tam
arisks dotting the landscape like tiny
islands on a dead-calm sea may be
found great variety Of game. From
all sides come flocks Of searavens.
plovers, herons and wild ducks of all
sorts. On the shallow borders Of the
marsh stand lines of pink fiamingoes.
Sometimes a blue Egyptian ibis strays
this way.
On the salt moor the rabbit multi
plies as in Australia, In spite Of the
iproads made by the sportsmen, who
are not forced to depend upon cap
hunting, as was the mighty hunter
Tartarin. Beavers which were numer-
GUS many years ago, are still found on
the banks Of the Rhone, and small
Iand-tortoises are often seen.
Wild Cattle, Horses and Sheep.
When you have crossed the wonder |
fully fertile lands, where crops and |
vineyards grow, you enter the wild |
Camargue. 1t Is marshy plain |
reaching to the shores Of the sea.
Thereon Is found the sansouiro, the
salt moor, and what scanty 0egeration
may grow along these marshes.
The extraordinary feature of this
wild section of France is the great
herds of bulls and horses grazing
peacefully, with fiocks Of sheep nib
bling the scant grasses of the desolate
moor.
skies and hot sun, sometimes dan
gerous in its intensity. But down from
the cold central plateau of France
there sweeps the mistral, a chilling
wind which blows, on an average, one
day in every two. One might we'll
picture Camargue as the setting for
the well-known contest between the
clustering wind and the genial sun, to
see which could first force the traveller
10 remove his cloak.
The mistrals power Is such that the
roofs Of the humber homes and cow
boy shelters hang low to withstand
he force of the dry, cold wind, often
,yclonic in power, and a cross is fixed
o the wall as additional protection
But, cold as the mistral is, it is (
blessing. for the malarial mosquitoes
md mlasmic vapors of the land cannot '
withstand Its blasts, and the muddy
norasses dry up before its cleansing /
,reath. For this reason 1t is called {
ne great mud-eater." s
The mistral is perhaps the main fac /
or In the environment of the land;
md by a strange coincidence, newer G
orce which has Influenced the region 9
'ears the same name. One might well
all this part of Provence the land r
# the two mistrals. So simply and
BEAUTIFULLY have the poems Of Frederic t
iistral described the herdsman's land t
nd life that one Of them, "Mireo,"
gon for him the Nobel prize for liter f
ture in 1904 and the lasting love of t
is people.
Master of phrases that he was, Mis- b
raj was also master of psychology. o
lie saw dances, sports and costumes h
8 the unifying factors in a native S
fe which was threatened by the melt h
nx not Of cosmopolitan civilization, p'