TORRENTS IN FRANCE. 949 
consequently enlarged demand for agricultural products, ought 
naturally to have increased the rural population and the value 
of their lands ; but the physical decay of the uplands was such 
that considerable tracts were deserted altogether, and in Upper 
Provence, the fires which in 1471 counted 897, were reduced 
to 747 in 1699, to 728 in 1733, and to 685 in 1776.* 
Surell—whose admirable work, Z¢ude sur les Torrents des 
Hautes Alpes, first published in 1841,+ presents a most appall- 
ing picture of the desolations of the torrent, and, at the same 
time, the most careful studies of the history and essential char- 
acter of this great evil—in speaking of the valley of Dévoluy, 
on page 152, says: “ Everything concurs to show that it was 
anciently wooded. In its peat-bogs are found buried trunks of 
trees, monuments of its former vegetation. In the framework 
of old houses, one sees enormous timber, which is no longer to 
be found in the district. Many localities, now completely bare, 
still retain the name of ‘ wood, and one of them is called, in 
old deeds, Comba nigra | Black forest or dell], on account of its 
dense woods. These and many other proofs confirm the local 
traditions which are unanimous on this point. 
“There, as everywhere in the Upper Alps, the clearings be- 
gan on the flanks of the mountains, and were gradually ex- 
tended into the valleys and then to the highest accessible peaks. 
Then followed the Revolution, and caused the destruction of 
the remainder of the trees which had thus far escaped the 
woodman’s axe.” ; 
In a note to this passage the writer says: “Several persons 
have told me that they had lost flocks of sheep, by straying, in 
the forests of Mont Auroux, which covered the flanks of the 
mountain from La Cluse to Agnéres. These declivities are 
now as bare as the palm of the hand.” 
* These facts I take from the La Provence au point de vue des Bois, des 
Torrents et des Inondations, of Charles de Ribbe, one of the highest author- 
ities. 
+ A second edition of this work, with an additional volume of great value by 
Ernest Cézanne, was published at Paris, in two 8vo volumes, in 1871-72. 
