PREFACE. 



These are evils, the dread of one or other, or of some combination of which, is 

 prompting many elsewhere to labour like men chained to the pumps of a vessel 

 foundering at sea, in the hope that they may yet avert what they fear ; and the 

 measures adopted by them are similar to those to which reference has been made. 

 My ears still ring with the echoes of Reboisement, and the corresponding terms 

 applied to the operation of planting or replanting forests where they have been 

 destroyed ; and I cannot but hope that the means thus employed, if adequate to 

 avert the dreaded evil, might prove to some extent an appropriate remedy for the 

 evil where it exists. I say nothing at present of what may have brought about 

 the present state of things. I admit the importance of the consideration of this 

 in discussing in full the subject ; but it is enough for me, and it will probably be 

 deemed enough by many of your re'adets, that I am satisfied I am giving safe 

 advice in saying, — Look to what men are doing elsewhere ! 



Wishing to give unity and completeness to my communication, I shall at 

 present refer only to what is being done to bridle torrents by planting trees, 

 knowing that the torrents of the Colony have been destructive both of life and 

 property to a very great extent, and that almost every year has its doleful renewal 

 of such calamities. 



Torrents have proved destructive on the continent of Europe by washing away 

 'fertile soil, by undermining houses and fields, and whole villages and towns, and 

 .causing their fall, by burying fields and vineyards and towns in the dehris thus 

 produced, and swept away, and by producing extensive inundations of lower lying 

 fevcllands, drovhing man and beast, and burying, washing away, or otherwise 

 destroying the labour of years. Your readers will know to what extent thB 

 parallel holds, and to what extent it fails, in the destructive effects of torrents at 

 the Cape, or m the districts in which they reside. Having thus indicated the evil, 

 I would briefly advert to the' remedial measures which have been adopted. 



One of the means employed to avert destruction when it was threatened, was 

 the erection on the river-bed of protecting walls, and of advanced structures, to 

 'determine the current, and of continuous slopes to regulate its rapidity and force, 

 and of pombined and modified forms of all of these appliances, which manifested 

 great art and skill, ingenuity, and power. It would be exaggeration to say they 

 proved in every case an utter failure, but this would only be an exaggeration of 

 what was the fact, which was, that in very many cases they failed to avert the evil, 

 and in not a few cases they were carried away before the torrent like chaff before 

 the wind, while the torrent seemed to laugh a loud and hollow laugh at the silliness 

 of man's device. 



To prevent the destruction of land by inundations, the more promising measure 

 of raising embanknients based or founded on the dry land was adopted, and the 

 river was tbuS chained within its bed, with only liberty of action within a limited 

 ^Jiace beyond. But whkt did the river do ? It silted up its bed, and thus raised 

 itself, and attempted to overfiow the embankment. The danger was perceived 

 in time, knd the embankments were raised to a higher elevation. The river 

 quietly repeated the sUtihg up of its bed, which was met by a repeated addition 

 to the embankment. This was done again and again. It was a continuoas 

 Btrtiggle between dead matter and living mind, carried on for years — for genera- 

 tions, — both refusihg to give in. Meanwhile, as in the case of the River Po, not 

 cinly the embankments, but the silted-up bed of the river was elevated consider- 

 ably above the level of the country lying on one side and on the other, an 

 iiqueduct of earth overtopping and threatening with destruction houses and trees, 

 aiid man and b6ast alike. Then it was a desperate and a deadly struggle, which 

 many saw it would have been well it had never been entered on, while others 

 looked on and said. It is evident that that is not the way in which the evil is to 

 be averted. Meanwhile the struggle was continued, until a breach was at length 

 effected in the embankment, and the river poured forth its torrent, inundating 

 the country far and wide. 



While this contest was going on, the study of torrents in the Alps revealed the 

 form of the bed of these to be a large somewhat semi-circular funnel-shaped 

 basin, JErbm the rainfall in which the waters were collected, — a channel more or 



