NOTES TO CANTO IV.
1 A portico. Within half an hour's walk from St. Rémy, at the foot of the Alpines, arise side by side two fine Roman monuments. One is a triumphal arch; the other, a magnificent mausoleum, of three stories, adorned with rich bas-reliefs and surmounted by a graceful cupola, supported by ten Corinthian pillars, through which are discerned two statues in a standing attitude. They are the last vestiges of Glanum, a Marseilles colony destroyed by the Barbarians.
2 Sambu, a hamlet in the territory of Arles, in the isle of Camargue.
3 Camargue is a vast delta, formed by the bifurcation of the Rhone. The island extends from Arles to the sea, and comprises 181,482¼ acres. The immensity of its horizon, the awful silence of its level plain, its strange vegetation, meres, swarms of mosquitos, large herds of oxen and wild horses, amaze the traveller, and remind him of the pampas of South America,
4 Vacarès, a large assemblage of salt-ponds, lagunes, and moors in the isle of Camargue. "Vacarès" is formed of the word vaco and the Provençal desinence arés or eirés, indicating union, generality. It means a place where cows abound.
5 Veranet is the diminutive of Veran.
6 Petite Camargue, also called Sóuvage, is bounded on the east by the Petit Rhone, which separates it from Grande Camargue, on the south by the Mediterranean, and on the west and north by the Rhone Mort and the Aigue Morte canal. It is the principal resort of the wild black oxen.
7 8 9 Faraman and Ambaroun are hamlets in Camargue. Aigui Morto is in the department of the Gard. It was at the port of this town that St. Louis twice embarked for the Holy Land. Here also Francis I. and Charles V. had an interview in 1579.
10 11 Centaury and Salicorne. The Centaurea solstitialis, a species of star-thistle, abounds in the fields of Crau after harvest. Salicornia fructicosa it a species of samphire.
12 Tamarisk, the Tamarix gallica of Linnæus.
13 Sylvaréal, a forest of parasol-pines in Petite Camargue.
14 "Columbine," the name of a large and superior sort of grape.