170 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



mountains of Velay^ those of Vivarais, was formerly navigable from the port 

 of Forez, and of Margeride, the group of Saint-Girons to its confluence, and 

 of the Domes and of the Dore Moun- the village of Lacave, sixteen kilo- 

 tains, show denuded slopes in every meters below Saint-Girons, was at that 

 direction, favorable to a surface off- time the center for the building of boats 

 flow, furrowed by water channels and for river navigation, 

 gullied by erosion ; the plateaus of Numerous documents preserved in 

 Millevaches and of Gentioux contain the municipal archives of Pamiers 

 only sterile wastes, impotent to arrest prove conclusively that in the thirteenth 

 the action of flood waters. century the Ariege was navigable from 



On account of deforestation the Pamiers, while at present it is navi- 



Loire, like the Allier, is no longer in gable only for thirty-one kilometers, be- 



summer anything but a great stretch low Cintegabelle. At that time the city 



of sand. Let a storm come^ a sudden of Pamiers had a great trade in wines, 



thaw in spring, or prolonged rains in which they shipped by water as far as 



the autumn, "every depression of the Bordeaux. In the eighteenth century 



ground gathers a torrent, every ravine people still went by boat from Pamiers 



confines a river, and all these waters, to Toulouse and vice versa. The Ariege 



accumulated in the valley of the Loire, was used also, as was the Hers and the 



form a roaring sea, which reminds one Arize, for floating logs. The flow of all 



of the great rivers of America."" At these streams has constantly diminished 



Roanne, the flow at low water and the because of deforestation, 



flow at times of flood is in the ratio In the eighteenth century logs were 



of one to 1,458. The flow at Orleans floated on the mountain river Aspe, 



oscillates between twenty-four cubic whose union with the torrent of Ossau 



meters per second and 7,500, which is forms the River of Oloron. From 1705 



more than 300 times the flow at low to 1780, the royal navy cut in the for- 



water. Five days are sufficient to re- ests of the Valley of Aspe timber for 



store the almost dried-up river and to masts, which was floated at Athas in 



raise the water level to six or seven rafts thirty-three meters long and four 



meters. and six-tenths meters wide and driven 



The Pyrenees offer numerous ex- to Bayonne. It would be impossible to 

 amples of the sad effects of deforesta- accomplish this to-day. The mountain 

 tion upon stream-flow. Dralet, in his river Aspe, as also the Ossau and the 

 "Description of the Pyrenees," pub- Oloron, has become an unruly torrent, 

 lished in 1813, tells us that the Tet, a and its flow, which varied a hundred 

 small stream of the eastern Pyrenees, years ago from thirty-three one-hun- 

 could not be used to float rafts and dredths of a meter in summer to one 

 timber after the removal of the forests meter when the snows melted, varies 

 that covered a part of its upper drain-, to-day from ten meters to two and 

 age basin. The Salat and its tribu- seven-tenths meters. During more than 

 taries, likewise but lately floatable, are eight months the depth of the water 

 only torrents now that the mountains does not go beyond one-half meter, 

 that overlook their valleys have been This diminution in the stream-flow and 

 cleared of forests. In the parish of increase in the difference between the 

 Saint-Girons one can see yet in a wall high and low water mark, are the re- 

 built in 1 130 chains which were used suit of deforestation. In 1813 there no 

 to hold rafts; in 1813 they were found longer remained of the forest of Is- 

 to be at an elevation of one meter and saux, which for fourteen years sup- 

 had become useless, the navy no longer plied the navy with trees of the largest 

 finding wood to cut in the territory size (one and six-tenths meters in di- 

 around Seix and Castillon. The Salat ameter at the base), anything but the 



"F. Schrader et L. Gallauedec, Geographic de la France et de ses Colonies, p. 143. 



