THE DESTRUCTION OF SZEGEDIN. 39 



and uniform. This is seen not only in irruptive floods 

 of a violent character, as the inundations of this year, 

 but the lands to the west of this river are subject to 

 the almost more serious evil of the oozing and leakage 

 of subterranean waters, which, for lack of channels 

 to carry them off, remain a long while, to the great 

 detriment of the farmer. 



To lessen this plague of waters has been the object 

 of the Theiss regulation works for nearly half a 

 century ; and it must be conceded that almost four 

 million acres of fever-breeding stagnant marsh have 

 been actually recovered. Unfortunately, this result, 

 great as it is, has not been an unmitigated blessing ; 

 for the more the people of the upper Theiss drain 

 and embank their lands, the more the dwellers in 

 the lower Theiss valley have to dread the recurrence 

 of disaster. " Les recentes inondations ont envahi 

 des territoires, dits { de collines,' que n'atteignaient 

 jamais les anciennes crues. . . . Quels que soient 

 done, aux yeux des ing&iieurs, les merites d'execu- 

 tion presented par les travaux d'endiguement de la 

 Theiss, la contree tout entiere y a plus perdu que 

 gagne." l 



" A great river will have its way," observed a dis- 

 tinguished geologist in speaking of the recent floods ; 

 certainly we may take it as an axiom that you 

 must not interfere with Mature without bringing her 



1 Geographic. L'Europe Cent/rale, par M. Reclus. Paris, 

 1878. Part iii. p. 316. 



