REBOISEMENT. 109 



teristics of the most dangerous torrents ; the restoration of 

 pasture lands of great extent ; the settlement of the native 

 tribes, which are still nomadic, and the introduction of a 

 European element, which of itself is capable of giving to 

 pastoral industry all the development which it can take in 

 Algeria.' 



He goes on to say ' The influence on the Tell of this 

 region so restored will be beyond all question considerable, 

 rendering the climate more temperate, the rains more 

 frequent and more regular ; making possible to the 

 Algerine colonists the rearing of cattle on an extensive 

 scale ; presenting to the Arab proprietors, who are forced to 

 yield their lands to European industry as the only means 

 of drawing from it great profit, a new field of activity 

 better proportioned to their means of action ; giving to 

 commerce and industry new products ; and, in fine, 

 ensuring political security by peopling the frontiers of the 

 Sahara. 



' And in a general point of view this restoration will be 

 a commencement of taking possession of that Central 

 Africa, towards which almost all modern nations to-day 

 direct their desires and ambitions. 7 



At a conference held in Algiers on the llth November 

 1881, M. Reynard, in the course of an address delivered 

 by him, said : ' This work of the reboisement of five 

 millions of hectares is a kind of speculation which only 

 the State could undertake. The revenue, the interest of 

 the half milliard thus invested, will be reimbursed to it 

 by the increase of the public wealth, by the extension of 

 its governmental power, by the development of industry, 

 of commerce, and of agriculture, not only in the colony, 

 but even in the metropolis itself. To form an estimate 

 to-day of what will be the value of these returns would 

 be to enter upon a calculation as impossible as if at the 

 commencement of the great public works of this century 

 they had made an attempt to form a correct estimate of 

 the future returns of the imposts. In France would not 

 any one have been reckoned a fool at that time who 



