INUNDATIONS. 587 



plants, and is an excellent manure for lands' that are poor in 

 lime. The higher the floods, the greater is the deposit of 

 mud. 



Dr. Schulze of Darmstadt gives the following percentages 

 for the constituents of Khine mud : 



1871. 1872. 



Potash . . . 0-43 0*19 



Lime . . . . 14'06 15*65 



Phosphoric acid . . 013 (Ml 



Humus . . 2-86 2'12 



Professor Nessler of Carlsruhe found the following con- 

 stituents in mud from the Upper Ehine. 



Per cent. Per cent. 



CaO . u 13-8 17-5 



P 2 5 . , . . 0-08 0*14 



Humus , \ . 1*1 4'4 



The average amount of calcium carbonate was 27*5 per 

 cent. The percentages of potash and phosphoric acid are 

 small, but always greater than in ordinary agricultural soil. 



Besides the supply of large quantities of soil, the utility 

 of floods also consists in the increase in subsoil-water, 

 specially useful for forests in dry years, and the destruction 

 of rabbits, mice, cookchafer-grubs, etc., that burrow in the 

 ground. 



The greatest recent floods in Central Europe in 1856, 1868, 

 1879, 1882, 1885, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1892, 1896, 1897, and 

 1899, chiefly affected the Alpine districts of France and 

 Switzerland, Hungary and Austria. 



In 1856 the Ehone caused fearful floods, which drowned 

 numbers of people and damaged property to the extent of 

 .8, 000,000. One of the results of these floods was the enact- 

 ment by the French Legislature of the laws for the reboisement 

 of the denuded mountain-sides, of the 28th July, 1860, and 

 of the 8th June, 1864, for regazonnement, or restocking them 

 with grass.* 



* " Forest Law," Baden- Powell, 1893, p. 248. Laws for the protection of 

 mountain forests in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy are also referred to. 



