494 



CONSERVATION 



four square miles in the Pyrenees. The 

 expenditure has been as follows : 



For acquisition of land. . . 

 For work of reforesting 

 For work of regulating. . . 

 Miscellaneous 



$5,200,000 

 4,000,000 

 2,600,000 

 i .600,000 



Total 13,400,000 



And there is still to be expended under 

 the plan contemplated about $23,000,000 

 more. 



Referring to this work, one of the 

 most recent writers on the subject (G. 

 Huffel, Economic Forcsticrc, 1904) 

 states : ''The role of the forest as a 

 regulator of the flow of streams may 

 be considered as evident, and it is to- 

 day universally admitted." Under the 

 able direction of Prosper Demontzey, 

 chief of the service of reforestation in 



France from 1882 until retired in 1893, 

 and of his predecessors, much has been 

 accomplished, and some formerly very 

 destructive torrents have been reduced 

 to inoffensive streams, by reforestation 

 and regulation, as above shown. Per- 

 haps it will now be argued that the 

 good results that have followed have 

 been due entirely to the regulation, and 

 not to the reforestation, but that is not 

 the view of the French engineers. 



At first, there was great oposition to 

 the French governmental policy, on the 

 part of the inhabitants of the mountain 

 districts, and in 1864 there were riots 

 in some places. This opposition, how- 

 ever, has entirely subsided, the inhabi- 

 tants now cooperate heartily with the 

 government, even petitioning to have it 

 extend its work, and in some cases even 

 giving portions of their lands on the 

 mountain sides without compensation. 



(To be concluded) 



Diamond Drill on Barge in Shoshone River at Dam Site, Shoshone Project, Wyoming 



