174 EFFECTS OP FORESTS ON SPRINGS. 



I have given in a separate volume on the " Hydrology of South 

 Africa." 



By Surell it is mentioned, in a note appended to his Etude sur les 

 Torrents des Hautes Alpes, " There has been discovered the existence, 

 in the time of the Romans, of a great corporation of watermen 

 established on the Durance, which proves that there was then a 

 considerable flottage, or transport, of timber in rafts, which has been 

 for a long time given up entirely, and which proves also that this 

 department was then covered with abounding forests, of which there 

 exist now only but meagre shreds." But now, that river has 

 made for itself a bed which in some places exceeds a mile and a 

 quarter in breadth, while the ordinary flow of the river is confined to 

 a cm-rent little more than thirty feet in width ; and from Young's 

 travels in France it appears that so early as 1789 it was computed to 

 have covered with gravel and pebbles not less than 130,000 acres, 

 " which, but for its inundations, would have been the forest land in 

 the province." Thus have we there land undermined and washed 

 away, — fertile land covered with the debris, and the fertilizing 

 material carried away to the sea. 



The fact in regard to the former state of the Durance is mentioned 

 also by Ladoucette in his Histoire, i&c , des Hautes Alpes. 



In the Avii des Sciences, of December 11, 1873, there is given 

 the following statement by M. Cantegril, sub-inspector of forests. 

 In explanation of one of the statements in this I may state that, 

 with a view to the conservation and improvement of the forests of 

 France, certain regulations had been laid down for the re-arrangement 

 of the forests of the States, and liberal arrangements made for the 

 extension of these regulations, to the management of forests belong- 

 ing to communes, where this could be done with their consent. 



*' Upon the territory of the commune of Labruguifere fTarn) there 

 is a forest of 1,834 hectares, (4,524 acres,) known as the forest of 

 Montant, and owned by the commune. It extends northward on the 

 Montagne-Noire, and the soil is granitic, with a maximum altitude of 

 1,243 meters, and a slope of from 15 to 60 in 100. A little water- 

 course, the Caunan brook, rises in this forest and drains the waters 

 of two-thirds of its surface. At the entrance of the forest, and along 

 this brook, are located several fulling mills, each requiring eight 

 horse-power, and moved by water-wheels which work the beaters of 

 the machines. 



"The commune of Labruguiere had long been noted for its 



