TORRENT OF ST. MOREL 



Large crevasses formed on ths edge of the plateau at the head of the ruined slope (not visible in the picture), and part of the 

 plateau slipping bodily in such a way as to threaten the village near its edge 



hopelessly broken up and carried bodil}' 

 downstream for lack of a foundation. 

 On the lower steep pitch of the torrent 

 the whole hill is slipping bodily at the 

 rate of twenty or thirty feet per year. 

 Here a set of "barrages" costing 

 $11, GOO, had been so completely de- 

 stroyed that scarcely a trace of them 

 could be seen. 



With such conditions "barrages" are 

 of no avail. The only remedy lies in 

 an elaborate system of underground 

 drains covering the entire slopes 

 affected. Naturally this involves an 

 enormous expense anil the drains when 

 once built will require constant atten- 

 tion, because if once they become 

 stopped up the hill will start on its 

 downward course again. Though the 

 work of checking this torrent was first 

 undertaken in i888, work on the drains 

 has only just begun, and it will be a 

 number of years before the people 

 living in the vicinity of the torrent of 

 St. Martin will be able to enjoy a sense 

 of security. 



3. Combination of straight cutting 

 down and bodily slipping. In most of 

 the torrents examples of this combina- 

 tion of conditions can be found to a 

 greater or lesser extent. But the magni- 

 tude of destructive power of the combi- 



nation is best seen in the torrent of St. 

 Morel. This stream has been rising at 

 frequent intervals, and at each rise has 

 swept away large portions of the base 

 of a slope almost a mile long above its 

 left bank. It has done this so often 

 that this large once fertile slope has 

 become a mass of bare and loosened 

 gravel. Even worse than the destruc- 

 tion of this hillside is the danger to 

 two prosperous villages on a plateau 

 above it. A large crevasse has opened 

 at the top of the slope on the edge of 

 the plateau and another one further 

 back on the plateau itself. This is 

 causing a large section of the nearly 

 level land only a short distance from 

 one of the villages to slip bodily to- 

 wards the bed of the torrent. In addi- 

 tion to this destruction and danger cer- 

 tain prosperous communities near the 

 mouth of the torrent were constantly 

 threatened with being overwhelmed by 

 masses of debris ; and the Isere and 

 Rhone Rivers were being silted up to 

 such an extent that commerce was im- 

 peded. When work on this torrent 

 was first begun, attempts were made to 

 check its ravages by the usual system 

 of "barrages." All these attempts 

 proved failures. Finally as a last re- 

 sort and in order to remedy the trouble 



20s 



