EVILS FOLLOWING DESfKUCTION OF FORESTS. 83 



the night of the 22nd June, M. Bey lac descended the 

 mountain during the most fearful weather to spread the 

 alarm ; but the floods in all the tributaries of the Garonne 

 were so sudden that to give extensive warning was impos- 

 sible. Had the bassms de reception of all these streams 

 been wooded it would have been otherwise, but they were 

 to a great extent devoid of vegetation. 



Very different had been the result had like warning been 



fiven along the course of the Garonne of the coming 

 ood from one to twelve or twenty-four hours before it 

 reached the different towns and villages destroyed ; and 

 very different had been the case had the waters which 

 swept along in a torrential wave taken fourteen days to 

 flow past any and every point on its course ! It may be, 

 that never would it have risen so high as to imperil a 

 single house, and that in consequence of the timely 

 warning given not one life would have been lost ! It is 

 said by a writer I have quoted, c If this observatory [that 

 on the Pic-du-Midi], now isolated on the peak, were bound 

 to the plain by telegraph, the General might transmit to 

 the officials of the Fonts et Chaussees previsions of the 

 last importance. In the same manner a station should be 

 made on the Corbieres. As soon as the quantity of rain 

 falling on these cliffs became dangerous the authorities 

 would be warned.' Yes ; but this, if combined with a com- 

 plete reboisement and gazonnement of the mountains, would 

 give them longer time to prepare for what was coming. And 

 it may be asked, Why has this not been done ? An answer 

 is forthcoming, and that not the answer which might be 

 expected, that, as has been stated, ' Between the sources 

 of the Loire and the Herault the Cevennes are 3,700 feet 

 high. All this surface is composed of granite, imperme- 

 able to the rain, and to plant such either with herbage or 

 with trees is impossible ; ' but the answer, that the work 

 is being done as fast as money and men and material can 

 be found, and that already, previous to this inundation, all 

 that could be done up to that time had been accomplished. 

 It is often easy to tell, after an event has occurred, how it 



