curiosity, but
to the Western boys, the sight was nothing unusual. The coolies,
however, were not dressed in the customary Chinese clothes, as in
California, but were in a garb more like that which American laborers
wear. They had on overalls, loose blouses or jumpers, heavy leather
shoes and straw hats.

We pulled out of Brest about 10 o'clock in the morning. The train was
made up of about twenty-five or thirty of those small and
uncomfortable French coaches, and it moved very slowly. To one used to
the fast first-class American trains, this French train seemed
exceedingly slow, unaccommodating and tiresome. We first climbed
gradually up the hills, overlooking the bay, and were furnished with a
wonderful view. We could see far out to sea, and were in part
compensated for the lack of comforts to which an American is
accustomed when traveling, by the beauty of the scenery, and the many
strange and interesting sights that were constantly meeting our eyes.

Soon after we left the ocean we came to a fertile farming section, in
which crops of various kinds, such as grains, fruits, garden truck,
etc., were grown. We had known that the farms in European countries
are small, especially those of France, as compared with farms in
America, but it was necessary for us to see the actual size of these
small farms to realize how diminutive they are. As in the vicinity of
Brest, mentioned in a previous chapter, the cultivated areas ranged in
size from a half acre to two and a half acres. Rarely we would see a
place as large as five acres, but that was the exception. No fences
separated these farms, but the boundaries were marked by hedges and
occasionally a low stone wall. In these small fields cultivation is
not practiced as in this country, but the land is tilled in narrow
strips. The numerous different textures of the soil, accounted for the
large number of strips. Each strip was planted to a crop to which it
was best suited.

The highways through this farming section are kept in excellent
condition. They are built of rock and give the impression from the
train window that a motor trip through France would be a delight. Rows
of trees are planted along all the highways, the poplar tree
predominating, but other trees being used frequently as well. The
by-roads are of dirt but appear to be kept in good condition. They
also have trees planted along them; this seems to be a characteristic
of France, and readers will recall that in al