PREFACE. T 



" From what had thus been observed the inference was drawn that by 

 artificial plantation the gradual extinction or the subjection of the torrent 

 to control might be efifected, — and numerous facts which had been long 

 known were recalled to give their testimony in confirmation of the correct- 

 ness of the inference drawn. Rain falling on a metallic roof rushes off, 

 while the same rain falling on a thatched roof trickles down in drops ; from 

 the bared ground the rain runs ofi' in streamlets long before it runs off in 

 a similar way from the grass-field or the thicket; and the more the 

 phenomena of percolation and drainage was studied, the more manifest did 

 it become that vegetation retarded the flow and prevented the rush of 

 water, retained it to moisten the soil, and extinguished the torrent, 

 requiring the river to take days and weeks to carry away what the torrent 

 carried away in hours, and thus securing something like a permanent flow 

 in what had become a dry channel, filled occasionally from bank to bank 

 with a destructive torrent, converting the lion into a lamb. And now 

 millions of francs are being spent on the work of planting trees, and herb- 

 ■ age, and bush, with a view to preventing torrents and inundations destroying 

 the land." 



When the first issue of this volume took place, the inundation which had 

 proved so destructive to Toulouse was engaging the attention of the 

 General Directory of Forests in France, who were satisfied that they had 

 the means of preventing the recurrence of such a catastrophe if they only 

 had the money necessary for carrying out the necessary reboisement and 

 gazonnement of the mountains ; and the works have been carried on with 

 more or less energy ever since. 



Amongst other important and interesting models exhibited by the Forest 

 Administration at the Exposition Universelle of 1878, were models, and 

 charts, and drawings of works of reboisement of mountains; and in the 

 Budget for 1880, provision has been made for the work being carried out 

 with still increasing energy. An application was made to the Chamber for 

 a credit offibout four millions of francs, well nigh £164,000, a million of 

 francs or £111,667 above what had been asked for 1879, for the execution 

 of such works. In making this application the Administration stated that 

 after the disasters occasioned in 1875, by the overflowing of the Garonne 

 and the Herault, and their afSuents, the Minister of Finance and the 

 Minister of Public Works gave assurance that measures would be concerted 

 between the departments over which they respectively presided, to be 

 taken with a view to prevent the recurrence of such calamities. They 

 stated that many surveys which were subsequently undertaken had been 

 completed, but in the absence of funds the works of reboisement had not 

 been begun. That, subsequently the Minister of Public Works had 

 solicited their co-operation to enable him to give a specification of works 

 actually called for' in Savoie. That information supplied by the engineers 

 of roads and bridges showed that the four torrents of Saint Martin, the 

 Grillaz, the Pousset, and Saint Julien, all of them affluents of the Arc, 

 were causing every year great destruction, which it was of importance 

 should be arrested without delay. That according to information in 

 possession of the Administration, the execution of the works in Savoie alone 

 would absorb more than a million of francs. 



The Budget Committee of the Chamber in reporting on the application, 

 submitted a detailed statement of what had been done, and the results^ 



