rWiFACE. i|i 



less elongated, along which the waters flowed,— ana a fan-shaped bed of deposit 

 corresponding to the delta of a river, the whole being like to a river-bed red^aosed 

 or contracted in length ; it showed, further, that these torrents were to be met 

 with in all stages of progress, from incipient formation, throughout various stages 

 of activity, to final extinction ; it showed that in forest- covered mounj^ regions 

 there were none; that in denuded mountain ranges they were numerous, and 

 sometimes very destructive ; that, where they were extinct, the forest had 

 extended itself till it covered the basin and lined the bants of the chainTiel • that 

 where they were in a state of progressive extinction, the forests were progressively 

 extending themselves ; and that this extension of the forest was apparently the 

 cause or occasion of the extinction of the torrent. 



From what had thus been observed the inference was drawn ,th9,t by artificial 

 plantation the gradual extinction or the subjection of the torrent to' control 

 might be efEected,— and numerous facts which had been long known were 

 recalled to give their testimony in confirmation of the correctness of the inference 

 drawn. Kain 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 oft 

 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 ipreventei 

 the rush of water, retained it to moisten the soil, and extinguished tie torrent^ 

 ■rectuiring the river to take days and weeks to carry away what the toOTeffll 

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

 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 franes 

 are being spent on the work of planting trees, and herbage, and bush, with a view 

 to preventing torrents and inundations destroying the land. 



It does not comport with my purpose to discuss details. I wish simply to open' 

 up the previous question, — Is it expedient to give consideEatiou to this ? It may 

 he objected, — It would be a gigantic work by which anything could be,doi;ie. to 

 bridle the torrents of the Cape ! It would ; no one knows that'better^than'lfio • 

 and I think it probable that no one has any ,such conception of the inagpitudg, of 



nothing of the destruction of life, which these torrents at present occasion ? I 

 have before me details of destructive effects of torrents which have occurred Sinbe 

 I left the Colony in the beginning of 1867. Towards the close of tl^at year there 

 occurred one, the damage occasiuned by which to roads and to house property at 

 Port -Elizabeth alone was estimated at from ^25;000 to ^30,000. Within a year 

 thereafter a similar destructive torrent occurred at Natal, in regard to which it 

 was stated that the damage done to public works alone was estimated at ^50 000 

 ■while the loss to private persons was estimated variously from ^£50,000 tb 

 J100,000. Iq the following year, 1869, a torrent in the Western Province 

 occasioned the fall of a railway bridge, which issued in loss of life and loss of 

 property, and persotial injuries, for one case alone of which the railway pro- 

 prietors were prosecuted -for damages amounting ;to £6000. In Beaufort, West;a 

 deluge of rain washed down the dam, and the next year the town was flooded by 

 the waters of the Gamka; and the next year, 1871, Victoria W est was visited 

 with a similar disaster. Such are the sums and the damages With which we^have 

 to deal in connection with this question, as it affects the case ; and these jire.ofjly 

 the most remarkable torrents of the several years referred to. I have spoken of 

 millions of francs being spent on Meboisement in Fiance, and some may 'be ready 

 to cry out,- " Nothing like such an expenditure can be undertaken at the Cape!" 

 Perhaps not ; but the losses occasioned by the torrents seem to amount at present 

 to about a million of francs in the year. This falls in a great measure on 

 individuals, that would fall on the community ; and the community in return 

 would benefi.t by water retained to fertilize the earth, instead of being lost in the. 

 sea,. and byflrewood and timber being grown where nowithere is rioae. These 



