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of Agriculture, the sport being always carried on under the surveillance of the 

 officers of the forest department. No forest officer can become a lessee of the 

 shooting within the limits of his own charge, and the forest guards are never 

 permitted to shoot in the forests under any circumstances. 



The municipal councils are, subject to the approval of the prefect, free to 

 dispose of the right to hunt or shoot in their forests in any manner that they 

 wish. 



DESTRUCTION OF WOLVES. 



The destruction of wolves, boars, and other animals which are considered 

 dangerous or harmful, is entrusted to a corps of 410 lieutenants de louveterie 

 (wolf -hunters). These officers, who are unpaid, but have the right to wear a 

 handsome uniform, are under the control of the conservator of forests, and are 

 appointed by the prefect on his recommendation. They are as a rule landed 

 proprietors, who accept their appointment for the sake of the sport it affords 

 them. They are obliged to keep bloodhounds and packs of dogs, and are charged 

 to organize and direct, in communication with the local forest officers, the battues 

 which are, from time to time, ordered to take place in the forests. But as this 

 system has not been found a very efficient one, a law has recently been passed, 

 under which a reward, varying from 1 12s. to 7, is payable to anyone who kills 

 a wolf ; and the mayors are authorized, when the snow is on the ground, to organize 

 battues for the destruction of wolves, boars, and other animals, anywhere within 

 the limits of their respective communes, on condition only that they give due 

 notice to the proprietors of the lands on which the beat is to take place. 



The rewards paid for killing wolves amount to about 4,000 a year. 



AFFORESTATION WORKS WORKS UNDERTAKEN FOR THE CONSOLIDATION 

 AND PROTECTION OF UNSTABLE MOUNTAIN SLOPES. 



Excessive grazing, both by local herds and flocks principally of sheep and 

 goats, as well as by vast numbers of these animals which are annually driven up 

 from the plains to the hill pastures, have produced complete denudation over 

 very large areas, and have thus caused incalculable damage in the great mountain 

 regions of France, principally in the southern Alps, and in the level country 

 below them. They eat down the grass to the level of the ground, and then teai 1 

 out the very roots, breaking up the surface of the soil, and rendering it liable to 

 be washed down by the rain. These hills are of a loose formation, the strata 

 being contorted and dislocated to a remarkable degree, and as soon as the soil is 

 deprived of its protective covering of trees, shrubs and herbs, whose roots hold 

 it together, the slipping and falling of the mountain sides are produced with a 

 constantly increasing intensity. The rain-water, no longer interrupted in its fall, 

 retained by the spongy, vegetable mould, nor hindered in its downward flow by 

 the thousands of obstacles which a living covering would oppose to its progress, 

 flows off the surface of the ground with extraordinary rapidity, and carrying 

 with it large quantities of loose soil, suddenly fills up the torrent beds. These 

 latter, scoured out by the rush of water, charged with mud, stones and rocks, 

 cut their way deeper and deeper into the mountains, and their banks, deprived of 

 their support at the base, fall inward, the debris being borne onward to 

 level ground below. The cracks and slips occasioned in this manner extend to a 

 great distance on either side of the torrent, especially on the side on which the 

 strata slopes toward it, and the effect is much increased when the upper layer of 

 rock is loose, and lies upon an impermeable bed ; the water then saturates 



