BROWNING THE TORRENT IN VEGETATION. 69 



moistui'e as it crosses the Mediterranean, strikes the mountains — Guyot 

 said he had known this wind to melt six feet of snow in twenty-four 

 hours), these torrent-channels are almost instantly filled with furious, 

 short-lived floods, which often sweep off bridges, buildings, crops, and 

 even animals and human beings, besides tearing up costly roads, and 

 "wash away a vast amount of precious soil from mountain-sides, where 

 it is sorely needed, and deposit it in rivers and harbors, where it is a 

 nuisance, and often a serious peril to navigation. 



In their gullying and undermining rage, these torrents tear out 

 stones and large rocks from the hill-sides, grind them up into gravel, 

 and even fine sand, and ruin much fertile land upon which they spread 

 this material. 



Marsh, in his " Earth as modified by Human Action" (p. 272), gives 

 Surell * as his authority for the statement that " the fury of the wa- 

 ters, and of tbe wind which accompanies them in the floods of the 

 French Alpine torrents, is such that large blocks of stone are hurled 

 out of the bed of the stream to the height of twelve or thirteen feet"; 

 and remarks that " the impulse of masses driven with such force over- 

 throws the most solid masonry, and their concussion can not fail to be 

 accompanied by the crushing of the rocks themselves." On page 273, 

 note, he quotes Coaz (" Die Ilochwasser im 1868," p. 54) : "At Rink- 

 enberg, on the right bank of the Vorder Rhein, in the flood of 1868, 

 a block of stone, computed to weigh nearly nine thousand cwt., was 

 carried bodily forwards, not rolled, by a torrent, a distance of three 

 quarters of a mile." 



But there is further mischief, which, as being more widely dif- 

 fused, is less sure to be assigned to the true cause — the stripping steep 

 land of its covering of trees : 



1. There is the failure of springs, because water of precipitation, 

 which should have been delayed upon the hill-sides by the roots, 

 sprouts, mosses, fallen leaves, etc., which fill and cover the surface of 

 the ground under a forest, till it could find the underground spring- 

 sources, runs off the bare slopes in a few hours. Dry springs mean 

 parched pastures, small crops, and unprofitable husbandry. 



2. The increased cost of buildings, bridges, furniture, and imple- 

 ments of all sorts, which are, in whole or in part, made of wood. 

 A large item in the current expenses of railroads is the outlay for 

 ties, which must be renewed frequently. Wood for fuel or structural 

 uses is a prime necessity of civilized life ; and, as it is bulky, its cost 

 increases rapidly with the distance it must be carried to reach the 

 consumer. Many countries have no stores of coal or peat, and must 

 have wood, or be sorely stinted for fuel ; that stinting is a waste of 

 time, health, and vitality. Floods make the maintenance of roads 

 difficult and costly, and so, of course, increase the expense of whatever 



* "jSiude sur les Torrents des Hautes Alpes,'^ published in 1841. This and the sup- 

 plementary volume by Cezanne (1870) are of the first importance. 



