THE EFFECT OF THE FOREST UPON WATERS 



169 



timber,' but that they should be in part 

 preserved, because they store up the 

 rainfall, feed springs, regulate stream- 

 floiv, and thus prevent disastrous floods, 

 such as were witnessed only last Feb- 

 ruary and March in Pennsylvania and 

 Virginia, where cuttings have been 

 made without thought of the future.'" 



In France we have numerous proofs 

 of a notable diminution in stream-flow. 

 The Durance, which rises in a partially 

 deforested drainage basin, has become 

 absolutely unfit for navigation or for 

 floating timber. Yet^ at the time of the 

 Roman occupation, there was an impor- 

 tant organization of boatmen on that 

 river. 



The Loire was formerly a navigable 

 channel of the highest order, which af- 

 forded sure communication between 

 Nantes and the central provinces. In 

 1551 the Marquis of Northampton, am- 

 bassador from England, went from Or- 

 leans to Nantes, with his suite, in "five 

 large, many-cabined boats." Numerous 

 pictures dating from the eighteenth 

 century represent Orleans and Blois 

 animated with veritable flotillas of boats 

 of every kind. 



At the time when Gaston d'Orleans 

 was exiled to Blois by Richelieu 

 (1634-37), he went down the Loire by 

 boat as far as Brittany, having "dinner 

 and soup served in beautiful, shady 

 places" when he found "some beautiful 

 and pleasant isle." At that time these 

 covered boats were called galliots ; they 

 carried in them "a large amount of 

 provisions and a retinue of servants, as 

 well for the kitchen as the wardrobe."" 



Madame de Sevigne went from Or- 

 leans to Rochers by "the delightful 

 route of the River Loire" and found at 

 Orleans twenty boatmen around her, 

 "each one displaying to the best of his 

 ability the rank of the people he was 

 conveying and the beauty of his boat."" 

 Steamboats furnished service as far as 

 Nevers during the first half of the 

 nineteenth century. 



Upon the Allier, transportation by 

 boats was flourishing. Madame de 

 Montespan, returning in 1676 from the 

 watering place Bourbon-l'Archambault, 

 embarks at Moulins, upon a painted 

 and gilded boat, the interior hung with 

 red damask, and adorned with pen- 

 nants displaying the arms of France 

 and Navarre. In 1819, the passage of 

 2,178 boats was recorded at Moulins; 

 this number rose to 3,524 in 1820, and 

 to 4,718 in 1823. In 1837, 100,000 hec- 

 toliters of coal were unloaded annually 

 at Pont-du-Chateau. A line of steam- 

 boats carried from Pont-du-Chateau to 

 Vichy and Moulins in 1845 20,000 pas- 

 sengers and 30,000 to 40,000 tons of 

 merchandise. In 1890 only ninety-four 

 tons of fuel and timber ■ were carried 

 down the Allier ; there is no navigation 

 ascending the river. 



At the present time navigation, al- 

 most null on the Allier, is impossible 

 on the Loire above Saumur. The bed 

 of the river has risen with frightful 

 rapidity because of the enormous vol- 

 ume of matter torn from the soil of 

 the mountains of the central plateau 

 that it carries with every flood. It has 

 been shown in fact that the remains of 

 Roman villas recently discovered on its 

 shores are several meters lower than 

 the present level of the river. It is the 

 same with the old Roman churches, into 

 which it is necessary to descend as into 

 caves, and yet it is impossible to sup- 

 pose that their architects built them 

 below the level of the river. The build- 

 ing of dikes, instituted in the seven- 

 teenth century along the Loire to pro- 

 tect the cultivated fields of the valley 

 against the overflowing of the river, 

 coincides exactly with the time of the 

 clearings made on the mountains of 

 the central plateau, that Colbert tried 

 in vain to check. 



Forests cover hardly thirteen per 

 cent of the area of the drainage basin 

 of the Loire, which is, moreover, com- 

 posed of impermeable ground. The 



'Jules Huret, En Amerique, de San Francisco au Canad, Paris, 1905, E. Fasquellc, p. 461. 

 '"Nicolas Goulas, Memoires. 



"Mme de Sevigne. Lettres a Mme de Grignan, 9 Mai, 1680; 16 Sept., 1684; 21 Mars, 

 1689, etc. 



