112 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. 



rain those living along its borders in disquietude feared 

 they would see it burst its embankments and inundate the 

 plain. The works of extinction were begun in 1864; and 

 in 1869, when M. Cezanne, before publishing his work, 

 procured for me the l^onour and satisfaction of showing 

 and explaining to him our works, he officially reported 

 that the extinction was then so complete that a simple 

 footbridge, placed at only 50 centimetres (20 inches) above 

 the torrent, now become a streamlet, defied the greatest 

 floods. This footbridge still (1874) stands where it was 

 seen by M. Cezanne, In the interval there has been no 

 lack of violent storms, the meteoric conditions have in no 

 way changed. The fact of the extinction of the torrenti- 

 ality of the stream is thus established and certain. And 

 in proof, a Sydicate organised by proprietors interested to 

 carry out defensive measures against the torrent having 

 no longer any raison d'etre, has dissolved itself.' 



This I consider a fair illustration of what has been 

 accomplished in cases innumerable in the regions of the 

 Alps, the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees. 



In addition to what has been said, I feel prompted to 

 cite the following statement by M. Gentil, Ingenieur en 

 chef des ponts et ckausees and rapporteur au conse.il general 

 des Hautes-Alpes, But I must premise it by mentioning : 



On the 28th of July 1860 there was issued a law on 

 the reboisement of the mountains. Four years later, with 

 more extended experience, on the 8th of June 1864, was 

 issued a law on the gazonnement and reboisement of the 

 mountains, enjoining the combination, where expedient, of 

 the creation of a turf of grass and herbage with the plant- 

 ing of trees upon the mountains. And on November 10th, 

 1864, was issued a Government order for the carrying into 

 execution of these two laws. 



Copies of these laws, and of documents connected with 

 them, have been given by me, with detailed information in 

 regard to the practical measures taken during the first 

 decade of these operations, and of results which have 



