THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF SYLVICULTURE. 267 



In the French Section, the chief interest lay in the "reboise- 

 ment" works, the Forest administration being clearly especially 

 proud, as well it might be, of the work they have done in 

 stopping the damage done to the cultivated lands in the valleys 

 of the Alps and Pyrenees by the constantly increasing devastation 

 of landslips. These works have now gone on for about forty 

 years, with the most satisfactory results. The Government has 

 spent about '2\ million pounds sterling, and have reclothed more 

 than 600 square miles of country, stopping landslips, rendering 

 torrents inoffensive, and safeguarding from damage very large 

 areas of valuable land which had previously been threatened. 

 The works undertaken were illustrated in the Exhibition by 

 a beautiful series of water-colour drawings and large photographs, 

 and by a diorama in two scenes, one showing the same locality as 

 the other, but at the end of ten years after the commencement of 

 work. "Beboisement" work is naturally carried out in different 

 ways, according to the different characters of the localities, but, 

 speaking generally, the first thing is to regularize the beds of the 

 torrents by means of barrier*, which usually consist of fascine- 

 work at the top of the ravines where there is not much water, 

 and heavy masonry walls below, where the current is strong and 

 many boulders are brought down. Trees and cuttings are 

 planted near the streams, and the seeds of grasses and herbs and 

 bushes are sown in order to create a vegetation, tree-planting 

 being usually only carried out afterwards, when that vegetation is 

 assured. 



In the French Section also, the fixing of sand-dunes, the 

 methods of stopping avalanches, road-making and house-building, 

 were all well illustrated, and there was a large collection of the 

 woods and products of the French forests, and of the many 

 valuable publications which have been prepared by members 

 of the forest staff. And here it is right to mention the great 

 liberality with which the French Government presented free to 

 the members of the Congress, copies of the valuable papers written 

 specially for the Exhibition. The most noticeable of these papers 

 was that of M. Melard on the probable early wood famine, to 

 which allusion has already been made. "Beboisement" works 

 are dealt with in a long series of a dozen or more interesting 

 papers. M. de Gorsse discusses the treatment of the torrents of 

 the Pyrenees ; M. Champsaur, those of the classic grounds in 

 the Lower Alps ; M. Bernard, those of the Upper Savoy moun- 



