REFORESTATION AREAS 423 



to work deforestation, removing little villages, farms, herds, and too often menace 

 life itself. In four winters avalanches have destroyed 700,000 board feet of timber, 

 cut sixty-seven roads and trails of all kinds, destroyed fourteen houses, killed seventy 

 sheep, and injured sixty-seven people, of whom eight died. Dangerous torrents, such 

 as Envers, St. Martin, and St. Julien have eroded the mountains, covered the cultivated 

 fields with debris and overturned houses. . . . The Arc Superieur area was estab- 

 lished by the law of July 26, 1892, and includes 7,801 acres, of which 6,422 acres belong 

 to the State. 



Work. — • The work of restoration is about finished in nine of the thirteen working 

 groups. The torrent of Envers . . . rises in the mountains of Petie-Mont-Denis 

 (10,269 feet). After leaving the schists of this higher basin it flows into a deep gorge 

 hedged in by gypsum. The ravines have been corrected, embankments have stopped 

 the avalanches from destroying the forestation, and drainage canals (by drying the 

 soil) have been effective in holding the snow and assuring the stability of the slopes. 

 Cembric pine has been sown at an altitude of 6,560 to 8,200 feet and spruce, larch, 

 and mountain pine planted between 5,900 to 7,200 feet. The torrent of Saint-Antoine, 

 communes of Villarodin-Bourget and Modane, flows from the little glacier of Belle- 

 fenier (10,140 feet). Its upper basin is a vast funnel with very steep slopes formed of 

 schists. . . . The torrent passes through a steep gorge of eroded gypsum and, cut 

 by a bank of compact limestone, its floods are very dangerous. The correction has 

 been effected by means of dams or drainage canals and avalanche walls. Moreover, 

 at an altitude between 5,900 and 7,550 feet, cembric pine has been sown and there 

 have been plantations of spruce, larch, and mountain pine. In the working group of 

 Orelle and of Thyl, the Pousset runs through sand and carboniferous schist. The 

 deforestation of its basin, the very steep slopes of its bed, the erosion and soaking of 

 the soil, make its floods frequent and violent between an altitude of 4,920 and 7,870 

 feet; here an area of 395 acres has been reforested with spruce, larch, and mountain 

 pine. When the young forest is sufficiently developed the various branches of the 

 torrent will be improved and it will be possible to gradually take up the other work of 

 necessary correction. In the working groups of Beaume, Saint-Michel, Saint Martin la 

 Porte, the Grollaz (see page 168) is bounded entirely by schists and carboniferous sand. 

 The correction work took place from 1880 to 1892 and from 1895 to 1905, and the foresta- 

 tion has extended over most of the basin. A complete stand of 124 acres of mountain 

 pine, spruce, and larch has modified the aspect of the mountain. Lower down in the 

 gorge, Scotch pine and alder are growing well. During the past few years the pine 

 in favorable localities has grown more than 2.3 feet per year. The forest already 

 estabhshed finishes the final working plan. The torrent of St. Martin in the com- 

 mune of the same name runs from the little pass of Encombres. Two branches eroded 

 in the gypsum have been corrected by means of dams and drainage canals. The left 

 slope of the torrent (for the most part carboniferous in character) is an entire area of 

 moving earth of about 3,700 acres. It is hoped to stop this important slide by drainage 

 work which so far has given excellent results. Between 3,280 and 4,260 feet of altitude 

 very complete forestation has been finished. The Scotch pine looks well but the in- 

 stability of the soil makes the results as yet uncertain. The material eroded by the 

 torrent is sluiced to the river in a masonry canal. This important work has not as 

 yet been finished and is not maintained by the Waters and Forests administration. 

 The Rieu-Sec torrent, communes of St. Martin and St. Julien, flows from the rock of 

 Beaume to the south extremity of the Encombres, through compact limestones and 

 from the badly eroded black schists. The characteristic of this torrent is the very 

 steep slopes of its basin. . . . The dams of enormous blocks of stone constructed 

 from 1897 to 1900 constitute the absolute correction of the torrent and have suppressed 

 the lava floods (of stone, mud, water, etc.), which might have formed in its basin. 



