Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-05-28
prepared by the National Geographic 80
ciety, Washington. d, c.

|
! prepared by the National Geographic 3D.
ciety, Washington. D. c.
| France, heavily populated for cen.
! turtles, is thought of as land of many
small farms and a few estates of rea-
sonable size, but with no place for the
cowboy, creature of the broad plains.
Eut France, unknown even to many
Erenchmen, has its cowboys and its
"cow country in the Camargue, a
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 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 it 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
it 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 a great variety Of game. From
all sides come flocks of sea-ravens,
plovers, herons and wild ducks of all
sorts. On the shallow borders of the
marsh stand lines of pink flamingoes
Sometimes a blue Egyptian ibis strays
this way.
On the salt moor the rabbit multi
plies as in Australia, in spite of the
inroads 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
tand-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 vegetation
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 flocks of sheep nib
bling the scant grasses of the desolate
moor.
Camargue is land of cloudless
skies and hot sun, sometimes dan
gerous in its intensity. But down from
the cold central plateau of France
there sweeps the mistral, 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
to remove his cloak.
The mistral's power is such that the
roofs of the humber homes and cow
boy shelters hang low to withstand
the force of the dry, cold wind, often
cyclonic in power, and cross is fixed
to the wall as additional protection.
But, cold as the mistral is, it is a
blessing, for the malarial mosquitoes
and miasmic vapors of the land cannot
withstand it's blasts, and the muddy
morasses dry up before its cleansing
breath. For this reason it is called
the great mud-eater."
The mistral is perhaps the main fac
tor in the environment of the land ::
and, by a strange coincidence, u. newer
force which has influenced the region
bears the same name. One might well
cal this part of Provence the land
of Che two mistrals. So simply and
beautifully have the poems of Frederic
MiStral described the herdsman's land
and life that one of them, 'Mireo,''
won for him the Nobel prize for liter
allure in 1904 and the lasting love of
his people.
Master Of phrases that he was, Mis-
trail was also a master of psychology.
! He saw dances, sports and costumes
as the unifying factors in native
life which was threatened by the melt
Ing pot Of cosmopolitan civilization.