8 INTBODUOTION. 



and falling into disintegration, and everything about them, announces ft 

 miserably ruined, decrepitated land, which does not appear even to struggle 

 against, or resist, or resent its destruction. The unchanging serenity of the 

 sky, which anywhere else would be a trait of beauty, adds here to the 

 melancholy sadness of the country. I shall go over step by step the errors 

 of man which have brought about this state of things. 



"Everything concurs to show that in ancient times this country was 

 wooded. There are dug up from its peat bogs buried trunks of trees — 

 monuments of ancient vegetation. In the frame-work of old houses are 

 seen pieces of enormous timber such as is not now to be found in the 

 district. Many localites completely bare still bear, even to-day, the name 

 of wood. One of these valleys (that of Agnferes) is called, in old deeds, 

 Comba-nigra, on account of its thick forests. By these evidences, and 

 many others, are confirmed the traditions of the district, which are,- on this 

 point, unanimous. 



" There, as in all the High Alps, the destruction of the forests began on 

 the flanks of the mountains, and thence descended little by little towards 

 the depths of the valleys, and ascended to the highest accessible 

 peaks. Then came the late Revolution which caused to fall the remainder 

 of the woods which had escaped the first devastation. This last destruction 

 was accomplished under the eyes of some of the present population, and t),ll 

 the old men remember what the forest was in a former day." ' 



He adds in a note : — " And many have told me that they have lost 

 flocks of sheep straying in the forests of Mount Auroux, which covered the 

 flanks of the mountain from La Cluse to Agnferes. These flanks are to-day 

 as bare as my hand." i 



" And," he resumes, " there, after the destruction of the forests, have come 

 also the grubbing up of roots and the pasturing of flocks. They grubbed up 

 the grounds nearest to the dwelling-places. They let the flocks go freely every- 

 where, wherever it was inconvenient or impossible to transport the ploughs. 

 This proceeding, begun centuries ago, accelerated by the Revolution, has 

 produced its inevitable fruits, and the inhabitants sufler sorely to-day from 

 the improvidence of their fathers. 



" The first evil to be noticed is the extreme rarity of woods. The 

 communes are burdened with the purchase, at great expense, of the 

 possession of distant forests. It requires in certain localities, as for 

 instance at Saint Etienne, thirteen hours of fatiguing work to convey, on the 

 back of a mule, a load of wood across the fearful precipices, and this without 

 reckoning the time occupied in felling and cutting. Other communes, for 

 example La Cluse and Saint Disdier, have preserved woods which, with the 

 greatest economy, might suffice to meet their wants, but they are not more 

 happy ; and this fact makes it apparent that the forests have a function to 

 fulfil here other than simply that of satisfying the daily wants of the 

 inhabitants. For, first the clearances, then the plough and the flocks, have 

 BO dissipated the vegetable soil that there now remains no more of it than a 

 thin bed formed by the disintegration of the rock which underlies it, and 

 which now protrudes through it on all hands. Such is the mobility of this 

 ground that it is washed away by the slightest showers and leaves an 

 arid bottom in the place of cultivated fields. Every storm gives rise to a 

 new torrent." 



In confirmation of this it is stated by Marsh in his treatise on The EaHh 

 as Modified hy Human Action,— "'^o attentive observer can frequent the 



