The whole country bears the appearance of an extensive and thick
forest: this arises from the nature of the enclosures; they are
extremely small, often not more than fifty or sixty perches,
surrounded with strong hedges planted in the banks. These
circumstances alone would give the appearance just noticed; but the
effect is much increased from other causes. On each side of the banks,
on which the trees are planted, there are ditches and drains, and the
moisture which they constantly supply to their roots, renders their
growth very rapid and luxuriant; so that when we consider the number
of the trees and their great size, we shall not be surprised that
the country looks like an immense forest. Sometimes the trees are so
disposed as to answer the purpose of a palisade; and this purpose they
answer most effectually, not only from the great size and strength of
the trees themselves, but also from the intervening spaces between
them being filled up with strong and impassable underwood [10].
[Footnote 10: A tract of about 150 miles square, at the mouth and
on the southern bank of the Loire, comprehends the scene of those
deplorable hostilities. The most inland part of the district, and that
in which the insurrection first broke out, is called _Le Bocage_; and
seems to have been almost as singular in its physical conformation,
as in the state and condition of its population. A series of detached
eminences, of no great elevation, rose over the whole face of the
country, with little rills trickling in the hollows and occasional
cliffs by their sides.
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