REBOISEMENT. 115 



true, but in a complete combination, all the difficulties 

 which could be presented to the execution of the different 

 works necessary to the extinction of a torrent by the 

 entire reboisement of its basin of reception. 



'The results obtained to-day make of this a typical 

 case. 



'The torrent of Laboret held in 1860 quite a special 

 notoriety, due to the ravages which its deposits occasioned 

 in the lower lying regions, to the frequent landslips of its 

 confining hills, and the absolute bareness of its surmount- 

 ing slopes. This bareness of the slopes of the Laboret, 

 which was proverbial in the country, was such that the 

 sheep had readily given place to goats, which finished by 

 destroying the rare tufts of vegetation which still existed 

 here and there. 



' On every occasion of a storm, on every occasion of rain 

 even, communication along the road was interrupted, and 

 presented serious dangers for travellers, so that from the 

 first appearance of the law of 1860 thoughts were enter- 

 tained of applying it to the lands which included this 

 dangerous torrent. 



' The Decree of Public Utility was issued on the 18th 

 June 1862, and the works were commenced at once. The 

 works purely preparatory were completed in 1870, at 

 which period they proceeded with a plantation of black 

 pines in tufts over the whole surface of the perimetre, 

 which were designed to constitute the dominant kind of 

 tree in the forest of the Laboret, which forest may be 

 considered as having been created and maintained since 

 1871. 



' The whole aspect of this perimetre has been completely 

 transformed ; those great black slopes, unstable and deso- 

 late, are to-day covered with a dense vegetation of forest 

 plants, of forest trees, both broad-leaved and conifers, and, 

 in fine, with bushes of all kinds. The innumerable ravines 

 which cut up these slopes, and supplied to the floods great 

 quantities of materials, are to-day filled up, and their bed 

 has disappeared under a dense growth of osiers and of 



